Vengeance Is Mine
by W0lf-Spirit
Summary: The hallucination born Clones are back, and want to make Rhett and Link pay. Buddy System by Rhett and Link story. Warnings: Rape, Graphic Depictions of Violence, heavy language, etc
1. Chapter 1

This had been a pretty great week for the entire team of Mythical Entertainment, but Rhett and Link were feeling it the most. Good Mythical Morning had wrapped up for another season just yesterday and everyone was ecstatic over it. It seemed like they had broken free from the rut they had been feeling before and everyone had fresh ideas and excitement again. Everyone, even the fans, thought this was one of their best seasons yet and it was almost a shame to have to go on break. But of course they had to and this time they actually were, for once, going to take real time off. No interviews or other projects, as much as they wanted to, just an actual vacation – or staycation more like it. To top it off, for part of that time Rhett and Link would have time to relax on their own and have the houses to themselves, since their wives took the kids off to a special mom-kid bonding trip leaving the two men to enjoy themselves solo for a while.

Today, to start off his time off, Link had just finished breakfast and a shower and was planning on treating himself to a nice big cup of his favorite coffee from his favorite coffee shop before taking that coffee, snuggling into bed, and perusing the internet for the rest of the morning and afternoon. There were a number of sites and articles and videos he had been meaning to get to look at but never have and finally he had a chance, but before he could do any of that, he needed to get the coffee first. L

ink was on his way outside when his phone started to ring from his pants pocket, so he took out the little rectangle and checked to see who was calling him. At the sight on the screen Link stopped walking, frowning and tilting his head to the side in confusion. The phone said it was a call from the GMM studio, which was... strange to say the least. There wasn't supposed to be anybody there right now, "Hello?"

"Hey Link."

The sound of the familiar, soothing, friendly voice of Link's best friend, Link visibly relaxed, resuming his path to his car, "Oh hey Rhett." His face flashed confusion again for a moment, "Wait... why are you calling from the studio phone?"

"My phone died so I need to charge it a bit. Guess I didn't plug it in all the way last night. Hey Listen, I was wondering if you could come over to the studio for a bit. I was planning on doing some brain storming before we really get into our vacation and was hoping you could help me out."

A warm chuckle escaped Link's lips as he shook his head, a cute little smile spreading across his lips. Of course Rhett would be at the studio brain storming – that man could never slow down sometimes. But of course, neither could Link, "Of course, Rhett. I'm picking up some coffee. You want your usual?"

"Nah man, I already have some. See you soon."

* * *

Rhett didn't even hear the phone ringing at first, his mind so deeply immersed in the pages of the book in his lap as he lounged comfortably in his living room. He finally was taking the opportunity of no work and no family to catch up on the many books he was in the middle of reading and he was loving it. It took whoever it was a second call to get Rhett to snap out of his own little world and look over to the table next to him where his phone lie, making him frown at it a little. He decided that unless it was either Link or his wife he would just decline the call, not feeling like socializing today in any way, but when he saw the number on the screen he had to pause for a moment. It seemed to be coming from the GMM offices and this immediately raised a world of questions in his head, since the offices were supposed to be locked up for the time being until it was time to start getting back to work for the next season. So, against his better judgment, Rhett hit accept, "Hello? Who's this?"

"Hey Rhett, It's me." Link's voice was happy sounding as always but that didn't really answer any of Rhett's questions – if anything it made him even more confused, "Link? Man what are you doing in the offices? I thought were were on vacation."

"We are... but I forgot something here yesterday and now I can't find my keys anywhere. Think you can come by and help me find them? You know how bad I am at this."

Rhett rolled his eyes a little to himself at his friend's scatter brained clumsiness. It was part of his charm but it certainly was a handful sometimes, "Of course, Brother. I'll be there in just a minute." With that he hung up and stood, stretching a little before grabbing his keys and heading out the door to go to the studio. Though... try as he might, he just couldn't shake a strange feeling buzzing in the back of his mind... the feeling that something was very, very wrong...


	2. Chapter 2

**~When you return to the place that you call home - We will be there, we will be there~**

Link, or more like the Hallucination of Link turned real, hung up the office phone, "Okay, Rhett. He's on his way now, but he'll be heading straight here so will probably be here first." Not as if that was a bad thing – it would be a lot easier to deal with them one at a time and as much as Link hated to admit it, Rhett was honestly the more capable of the two so it would be good to get him out of the way. He adjusted his blue vest, eyeing Rhett's orange one. They really needed to find new vests, Rhett's had a hole that had a light stain of blood around it despite their best efforts to patch and clean it... for now though cLink slipped his scarf and vest off, adjusting his clothes and hair to make sure he looked as much like the Original Link as possible (not that it was hard to do) before looking up at his much taller best friend, "You think we're ready? What if they-"

"They won't. I'll be sure of that." cRhett cut off the shorter man in the middle of his sentence, "Those bastards won't get the chance this time. We have the upper hand.. they want to play those games then we can too. And we'll win." He gave cLink a reassuring smile and clasp on the shoulder, "Don't you worry, Buddy Roll. They'll get what's coming to them, then we can go do what we had wanted to do in the first place. It'll be great!"

cLink wasn't so sure to be honest... but then again he never was. He was the one with self confidence problems and he was the first to admit it, so instead he decided to just put his confidence in cRhett. Besides... he was right. They _did_ have the upper hand. They'd been preparing for quite a while, not to mention the Originals didn't even realize that they were alive and now... now they'd get what was coming to them.

cLink's thoughts were interrupted as they heard the front door of the office building open. The Clones exchanged a quick look before cRhett ducked away to hide and start the plan into motion as cLink headed out to go greet the other man.

* * *

Rhett couldn't help but wonder what the heck Link did with this keys this time. Really, they needed to invest in something that would help him keep track of his keys and phone and wallet. As he made his way into the parking lot he kept an eye out for the glint of the younger man's keys on the pavement, hoping to run across them quickly so he could get back home to his book. He had been in such an interesting part, he wanted to get back to that as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately there was no flash of keys in the lot and as Rhett pulled into his usual parking spot he also noticed that there were no other cars in the lot as well. Link's car was nowhere to be found and that was very strange. From the sound of what Link had said on the phone, Rhett had been under the impression that his glassesed brother had left something at work, driven there, and then lost his keys in the process. But it looked like maybe Link had meant it was the keys that he forgot in the office but that didn't make sense either... why wouldn't Link have called him to give him a ride to the studio? It wasn't like him to take a cab if Rhett was available. Especially since he ended up calling Rhett anyway...

… Something wasn't right, warning signs were flashing in Rhett's head about how wrong this felt. He just had a feeling deep in his gut that he should turn around right now, call Link and tell him he had something to do and wouldn't be able to help after all. But he really had no reason to think that so just tried to shake it from his mind. Despite trying to tell himself that he was being ridiculous, he still found himself opening the front door of their studio slowly, stepping in cautiously as his eyes darted around for anything that seemed wrong, any sign of danger.

"There you are, Rhett. Did you see my keys on your way in?"

Rhett's eyes made their way up to his friend standing a few feet in front of him and immediately the weird feelings deep in his gut all but disappeared in a wash of familiarity. Sure, the back of his mind still was telling him something was wrong but he couldn't place his finger on it, so he chalked it up to being in the studio when they were supposed to not be. He relaxed quite a bit and closed the door behind him, shaking his head, "No, afraid not, man." He paused a moment and chuckled, shaking his head a little, "Please tell me you didn't loose your phone again, too. We've had enough phone troubles. We really don't need any more crazy ex's trying to kill us or weird hallucination clones or anything."

Link chuckled, but something sounded kind of weird about the normally heart warming sound. In fact, Rhett swore he saw the smile on Link's face uncharacteristically flicker for a moment as Rhett said that, but once again he shoved the thought aside. Every fiber of his being was screaming that something didn't feel right and something about Link was very wrong, but he had no logical reason to think that so ignored it.

Link shook his head and chuckled a little, "No, no... I have that charging in the office. Don't worry, no more crazy adventures for me, thanks." He turned and motioned for Rhett for follow him, "Come on, help me look around so we can head back home. The last place I clearly remember having them was in the break room."

Rhett nodded and followed the shorter man, "Alright, let's start there. Then if we don't find them we can retrace your steps like we did when you lost your phone." But this time they'd hopefully have better luck then their little adventure from before. It felt like just yesterday but was almost a year now. As they walked through the quiet, empty studio Rhett couldn't help but ask, "How'd you get here if you don't have your key's, though?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter. You don't have to worry about that, Rhett. You don't have to worry about anything, soon."

… Woah, wait... what? That answer was... weird. And more then that, Link's voice sounded somehow different. Darker? Colder? He couldn't place it, "What do you mean? Are you telling me you walked?"

Rhett never got his answer. Instead, as they turned the corner to the break room, Link seemed to have disappeared from his vision. He didn't even have time to look around as a strong, blunt force collided with his stomach, knocking all of the air from his lungs and making him double over, clenching his mid-section. Before he had time to react or even get a full breath of air something hard jolted up and cracked him sharply in the face, barely giving him time to register the pain before blacking out, collapsing to the ground.

* * *

cRhett stood over him, breathing somewhat heavily from the force he had put into punching and kneeing his Original self but damn that felt so good. cLink was standing to the side, grinning enthusiastically, "Man, that was great!" Gosh he would have never thought Rhett would be so good at that. cRhett cracked a smile as he looked up to cLink, trying to rub both his hand and knee and the same time, "Dang, I didn't realize I had such a hard face. That hurt." He and cLink shared a chuckle before he focused back on the limp figure sprawled on the ground. It was weird seeing himself like that but... at the same time he somehow could tell the smallest differences between himself and that Original, "Okay, Let's get him taken care of. Link will be here soon."

cLink nodded, shifting a little bit to stretch his back before bending down and wrapping his arms around the limp figure on the ground as cRhett grabbed the man's legs. With a grunt they hoisted the man into the are and carefully made their way into the very same room they had initially been stabbed in one year ago today. The room looked very much different now then it did then, however. Since the studio emptied out yesterday, they had been busy at work with getting this room ready. They cleared out some of the furniture to give them more room and brought some other things in that they thought they may need. There was no turning back from this so they wanted to be sure they were completely prepared.

Unceremoniously they dropped Rhett, who hit the ground with a dull thud. He seemed to have some blood on his lip from being kneed in the face but rather surprisingly there wasn't any other apparent injuries from the attack. cRhett moved him up against the back corner wall as cLink grabbed a length of sturdy rope to tie around the man. They made sure Rhett's wrists were tightly restrained behind his back and his ankles were tied in front of him. They also took a gag and made sure it was tight around Rhett's mouth, wanting to be sure that the there was no way Link would be tipped off before he joined the fun as well. cRhett made sure he was positive that not even he could escape from the bindings before the stepped back and admired their handiwork.

After a few moments cLink knelt down in front of Rhett, just studying his unconscious face. Normally the sight of blood would be more then enough to make him pass out but after all he'd been through thanks to this guy and his friend, cLink had developed a sort of immunity to it. That isn't to say it didn't make him somewhat woozy if there was enough of it but his hate for this man was enough to push that to the side. He just studied the man's face... this was the face of his best friend - his blood brother. But yet... it was different. The Clone could somehow just feel that this wasn't _his_ Rhett (just like Rhett had felt something was wrong with Link). Though the face was the same, he saw a completely different person and it sickened him that this murderous bastard was the 'real' version.

A wave of seething hate and anger washed over him and he raised his fist, only to be stopped by cRhett before his hand could collide with the other's skull, "Not yet, Link. We don't want to wake him up. We can't risk him finding a way to warn the other Link or fight back."

cLink softly sighed and then loudly huffed, but nodded, lowering his fist, "Alright... it's just... after what he did to us - to you..."

"I know..."

Any more conversation they may have had was cut off as they heard someone else walking around in the studio. Once again they shared a look and cRhett ripped off his vest and scarf, sprinting out to greet his 'friend', "Hey Link."


	3. Chapter 3

**~Into fire you can send us - From the fire we return~**

cLink watched as his blood brother headed out to greet the other murderous bastard. Just because they had gone through so much and were... different now, didn't mean they weren't still clones of the original Rhett and Link. As such the bond the two clones had was as close as the bond the Originals had with each other. They still had all the thoughts and memories of the Originals, but now they were their own people. cLink shook his head and tried to get himself ready for this, grabbing his scarf (which cRhett had brought with after luring Rhett into getting knocked out) and wrapping it around his neck. He wasn't sure why he and cRhett liked these scarves and vests so much, they just did. Maybe it was because it made them feel different from the originals. Maybe it was some other reason. He wasn't sure but in the end, that was the smallest thing on his mind.

Once the scarf was comfortable around his neck, deciding to leave the vest to the side for now, he looked down at Rhett, studying his limp frame. He was so similar and yet... not. Instead of the brotherly love warming the pit of his stomach he felt a passionate hate seething within his veins. This bastard right here... he was the one who killed Rhett. In fact it was him who had suggested killing them in the first place! They didn't even try to talk or anything, like the Clones wanted to do. They could have figured out something to make everyone happy but no! Instead they made the Clones, barely having spent any time 'alive' go through the worst pain and agony imaginable. So they would have to pay... both of them. And cLink would make sure that this bastard's heart was torn out of his chest... figuratively or literally, he wasn't sure at this point. The big brother would helplessly watch his little brother break.

It was surprising to see the blonde man start to stir and it sent a cold wave of panic down the back of cLink's neck. If this man called out or somehow got free that would be the end of it, he was sure. He thought about knocking Rhett out again but took a quick breath to calm himself. No, they were prepared this time so nothing would stop these two from getting their punishment. So instead cLink let Rhett wake up and grabbed a knife from the nearby table, holding it with a little steadier of a hand then normal thanks to his concentration and hate. He kept his eyes fixated on the familiar face, wanting to make sure he would be able to shut him up before single sound escaped.

Slowly Rhett's soft, green eyes slid open, his sight blurry with clouds of confusion. He squeezed his eyes and opened them again a couple of times to try to clear them as his mind tried to piece together what happened. He had no idea what was going on or where he was. All he knew was his stomach felt tight and his lip hurt. The next thing he was aware of was the biting pain of something that felt like rope restricting his movement and the dry taste of a gag in his mouth. Once that realization dawned on him his eyes flew open, suddenly clear as the memories of everything that led him to this point hit him. Link's keys... the studio... following Link... then being attacked.

Link... Where was he? Did something happen to him? A wave of nauseating panic flooded into him, not for his own safety but for Link's.

He heard something shift and his eyes followed the sound, trailing up to see Link in front of him. For a split moment he felt relief, seeing the man was okay, but that relief was immediately replaced by more confusion and fear. Link was obviously okay so why was Rhett like this? And Link had... a knife? Maybe Link was going to free him, yea that sounded right. Link dodged the attackers and now was here to cut the ropes and free Rhett so they could get out of here.

But no... that wasn't it. He saw the strangest look on Link's face and in his eyes and it only confused him more, his own wide ones looking up, begging for answers. He let his gaze drop away as he focused on struggling a little, twisting his arms to try to free them and trying to use his tongue to push the gag from his mouth. None of this worked and at best he got rope burns to show for his struggle. Before he could do much more he felt something cold and hard press against his throat and he froze, his eyes darting back up. He saw Link kneeling in front of him, holding the knife against Rhett's throat with a shockingly steady hand and regarding him with cold, cruel eyes that the taller man had never seen in his entire life... from anybody let alone Link. The giant of a man felt like little more then an ant under that gaze and he found himself involuntarily shrinking away. This had to be a joke, right? He knew Link would never hurt him, so he just stared at Link, internally begging for him to say something, anything, to answer his unspoken questions.

Once the brunet opened his mouth to speak, Rhett immediately wished he hadn't. It certainly was Link's voice... but it was so hard and dripped hate that cut Rhett to the very core, "If you make a sound, he will suffer for it. Understand?"

He? Rhett stared in confusion before he finally noticed what was around Link's neck. A distantly familiar scarf. In the corner of his vision he saw another scarf and two bright vests.

This was a clone. The Link clone he thought was dead... in fact he distinctly remembered disposing of the guy's body so why was he here now? How was he here now? cLink could read the look that had flooded into Rhett's eyes, knowing the man had pieced together who he actually was. He smiled down at him, but it wasn't the smile that Rhett had come to know... it wasn't the goofy grin or soft smirk... it was something so much more sinister, "Yep, that's right. You recognize me now, don't you? So I'd stay quiet if I were you, otherwise you're going to be putting your friend through even more then necessary."

Rhett was pretty positive by just looking into cLink's eyes that no matter what, things wouldn't be particularly good for them anyway. At the same time, Rhett knew that even if he did somehow manage to warn Link, there would be no way the brunet would be able to get away in time from both of the clones and by then there was a threat that things will end up worse. Rhett didn't want that and knew it wasn't a chance worth taking, so instead he resolved to staying quiet and keeping his eyes on the other man as he tried to do whatever he could to get himself free.

* * *

As Link enjoyed the relaxing drive down to the coffee shop which was luckily on the way to the studio, he couldn't help but chuckle a little to himself with the biggest smile on his face. He couldn't believe that Rhett was at the studio working on things while they were supposed to be enjoying some rarely gotten rest, but yet at the same time he wasn't surprised at all. He did find a part in the back of his head questioning how odd it seemed though. Rhett had been really interested in some books recently and had made it clear that he didn't want to go out and do anything until he had at least had some time with them, but maybe he just grew bored of that.

Once at his favorite coffee shop he decided to go through the drive through, grabbing himself a medium coffee before setting out for the office. He had thought about getting a large but decided that he could make some more at the office if he wanted to. Over half of it was gone by the time he was pulling into the parking lot of his destination, however, so maybe he should have gone for a large after all. Oh well, they had some in the kitchen so he'd stop off there before getting heavily into their brain storming. For the time being he pulled into his parking space next to Rhett's car, smiling a little to himself and shaking his head once more at the fact that Rhett was here. What he didn't notice, though, was that the other car was still warm, showing it had only showed up shortly before Link had.

As the brunet stepped out of his car and locked it, he felt a strange wave of nervousness wash over him and making him feel a strong pull to find Rhett almost as if something was wrong. He shook the feeling off, though, chalking it up to the buzz of being here about to work when they weren't supposed to, almost like the rush kids got for breaking a harmless rule.

Excitedly he half sprinted up to the building and stepped inside, immediately tossing his now empty coffee cup and throwing his coat gently on a chair nearby before looking around, "Rhett?" He figured the man would probably be in their office, but knowing Rhett he could also be in the kitchen. So, since he needed more coffee anyway, he started for there first.

"Hey Link."

The all too familiar voice behind him caused him to turn with a happy smile, seeing his best friend coming up from down the hall. However something immediately seemed off , but Link couldn't place it for the life of him, "Hey Rhett... you feeling okay? You look a little... off."

Had Link been really paying attention he may have noticed a look pass over Rhett's face. Instead all he saw was Rhett shaking his head, "I'm fine, man. I've just been here for a while and I'm itching for us to get to work. Come on, I have some ideas I think you'll like."

Well, that was fair enough. Rhett was gesturing to follow him back down the hallway so he supposed coffee could wait. He just hurriedly followed Rhett down the hall, "So what have you been working on?"

"You'll see once we get there. It'll be great." Rhett flashed him a big smile which made Link smile in turn, though also feel once again like something was off... like maybe Rhett was hiding something from him? He wasn't sure but oh well, he was sure it was all in his head. It usually was after all.

Once they made it to the room Rhett stood a little to the side and gestured for Link to head in first. The shorter man gave Rhett a smile of appreciation and turned the corner but pretty quickly slowed to a stop as his mind caught up with what his eyes were seeing in the room. This room... well it certainly wasn't the same now as it had been yesterday when they left for the day. He heard the door close behind him and Link swore he could also hear the click of the lock, causing him to turn in confusion with a furrowed brow.

As he opened his mouth to speak and ask what exactly was going on, Rhett shifted around him quickly and pushed Link backwards against the wall hard enough to cause Link to loose some of his breath with a grunt as Rhett spoke, "We're going to have so much fun, Link." Rhett grinned widely with the most foreign look in his eyes, the tone of the man's voice almost joyful but there was something... wrong to it as well. Link could only stare up at him with wide, confused eyes, "What the hell, Rhett?" He tried to push the man away but he was essentially pinned to the wall by the larger man. Normally Link wouldn't be afraid in this situation because he trusted Rhett but something was wrong with Rhett and it was terrifying him.

That's when he saw it out of the corner of his eyes- There in the corner was... Rhett again? Tied and gagged and staring with large, scared eyes but there was something different about him, something not as... evil feeling as the man in front of him. Link had no proof but he just knew that the man tied up was Rhett - his Rhett - not this imposter. He pushed harder but was just pinned by the shoulders to the wall, making him start squirming desperately, "Get off me! What have you done to Rhett?! Who are you!?" He felt panic rising in his body, clouding his senses and judgment. His knees felt weak but he needed to get him and Rhett out of here.

That's when another person stepped into his line of sight which made him freeze again. It was him... wearing a familiar pink scarf. Link's eyes widened as realization dawned on him, "You... you're from my halluci-"

He was cut off as cRhett yanked him forward roughly, nearly throwing him into the middle of the room. The only reason he didn't end up on the ground face first was because the other version of him caught him, though it wasn't to be nice, "You're hallucination, yes. Remember us?"

The dangerous sound in his own voice made Link shiver visibly. He tried to push away from cLink and step back but bumped into cRhett, who had slipped on his scarf before joining the other two. He wrapped his arms around Link's thin frame as Link's mirror image placed his hands on Link's chest and hip. Link could tell he was stuck and he was terrified, "W-What do you think you're doing?" Link knew that he didn't want to know the answer, whatever they were planning was not good. The Clones hadn't necessarily been bad before but something about them had changed - something was... Broken.

They had to get away. Link knew it without a shadow of a doubt. He needed to somehow get Rhett free and they needed to run. He could see in his friend's terrified, wide eyes that Rhett clearly was in agreement there but neither of them were in much of position to get away, "Get off me leave us alone!"

"Shut up, Link." cRhett's voice was the same familiar thing he'd known most of his life but at the same time it was so sharp and cold it felt like a shock, causing him to freeze for a moment. He only let the moment last a second however as he began struggling as hard as he could, hoping he could push them away from him. Unfortunately all that earned him was the two Clones stepping closer, cRhett's large hand grabbing a hold of Link's wrist and squeezing tight enough that it would probably bruise before twisting it dangerously. Link hissed in pain and had no choice but to stop struggling, "Why are you hear? I thought you were-"

"Dead?" His own voice speaking to him with such a malicious tone was something he never wished he had to hear. He hadn't known he could sound like that. Link struggled again weakly but he was afraid that cRhett might break his wrist if he kept it up. Not to mention both Clones were uncomfortably close, making his heart beat painfully in his chest as he tried to keep himself calm.

"We were dead, in a way." cRhett was the one to explain, shooting a glare over at his Original with disdain. Rhett meanwhile was desperatly trying to figure out a way to help Link get away from them. He couldn't stand to see this... they way they manhandled his best friend like that? And what's worse was they were mirror images of themselves. There was something inherently wrong about watching himself hurt the person in the world that mattered most to him. Unfortunately he felt useless and trapped, the ropes being tight enough that he couldn't even so much as hop anywhere if he could manage getting on his feet. So for the time being he was forced to sit there helplessly, still struggling with the ropes hoping he could get them looser but so far only earning raw parts on his arms.

cRhett looked back to Link and continued his explanation, though it was clear it was for them both to hear, "We were born from a hallucination - your hallucination, Link. Because of that, as long as you're alive, we can't die" What he didn't mention was that if the Originals died, the Clones would stay alive and more or less take their place as being the 'real' ones, " Even from the worst injury, our bodies find a way to regenerate."

"Including dismemberment." cLink dug his nails into Link's skin, resisting the urge to hurt him more yet.

"You can't even begin to imagine what it feels like. Being stabbed. Being dismembered. Then basically regrowing... trapped in your own mind, feeling and hearing everything but unable to move or even scream. It's not something I'd wish on anybody. Well... almost anybody."

Link's eyes were wide now not from fear but from absolute horror and disgust. They had felt everything? They had been aware of it all? He couldn't even begin to imagine that pain. Link hadn't enjoyed doing any of that in the first place, even having had fainted many times during the whole process, but he had thought that it was necessary.

Rhett shifted, feeling disgusted by what he just heard. It was like ice water was poured into his stomach, freezing his very core. He had been the one to suggest that... he was the one who told Link to do that. And they had felt it all? That would certainly explain their personality shift, that would probably mess with anybody.

Link shook his head violently, his entire face twisting in horror, "N-No... you..."

cLink's hand came up and grasped Link hard by the throat, immediately cutting off his sentence and breath as he dug fingers deep into the skin, "Don't worry. You guys wont have to feel guilty for long. We're going to return the favor."


	4. Chapter 4

**~Maybe we'll show some mercy - Maybe you'll get what you deserve** ~

Link's eyes widened, the gentle blue iris' shining in fear as he tried to take a breath but couldn't even get a drop of air. He felt pressure in his head from the tight hand on his throat and immediately started trying to twist his body, attempting desperately to get away while he still could but it was no use. cLink's hand was clenched too tightly around his throat like a vice, his fingers on the sides of his neck already causing bruises. The Clones were as strong as them and they clearly had the upper hand right now. Link reached up, trying to claw and pull at the large hand cutting off his oxygen, leaving red marks along the pale fingers but all that accomplished was the hand getting a little tighter, digging it's fingers in a little deeper. Link was sure that if this kept up cLink would crush his throat and that would be the end of it. The panic welled up deep in his gut as he writhed and struggled to get away.

cLink just watched with cold, icy eyes as his double squirmed in his grip, gasping uselessly for breath like a fish out of water. It was an interesting site to see, to say the least. He had never seen this sort of thing in person - neither himself or the memories that he shared of Link - so witnessing a mirror image of himself suffering like this at his own hand was certainly an interesting experience.

This was bad... this was so very bad. Link couldn't breath and he couldn't get away no matter what he did. His mind was getting muddy, his head was full of pressure and his vision was beginning to blur and darken in and out. His whole body felt heavy and he lost the strength to scratch or struggle, instead he could only weakly hold onto the clone's hand, attempting to steal even a small breath of air. Rhett could do nothing more then stare in horror, struggling to get up and to save Link but the way he was tied up, even so much as standing on his own was all but impossible. So instead he was forced to watch desperately as his best friend got choked to death by an identical clone.

Seconds before he was about to loose consciousness, Link could feel the grip around his throat loosen and disappear. He collapsed to the ground, unable to move as his body focused on coughing and wheezing, gulping in air greedily to fill his burning lungs. He wasn't aware that the clone of Rhett was walking over to the table and grabbing something - he didn't care. All he cared about right now was filling his oxygen depraved body with air again. He was amazingly and somewhat strangely granted a few moments to try to pull himself together until finally he weakly pushed himself to his hands and knees, head down and still gulping for air but determined to not just take this lying down. He had to fight back, Rhett couldn't right now. But after barely a few seconds on his knees cLink sent his foot hard into Link's side, causing the brunet to grunt in pain and hit the ground again, squeezing his eyes shut with a groan. God dammit, he was starting to get annoyed. This was ridiculous. They were just them! Shouldn't they be evenly matched, preparation time or not? Before he could even try to act on his growing anger he heard cRhett speak and approach him, "Hey Link, Remember when you had that bad shoulder a few years ago? Remember how much it hurt and all that physical therapy you had to go through and how much you hated it?" The bearded man didn't wait for an answer, knowing he wouldn't get one either way, "Well, that was all for nothing."

Link was confused for less then a split second before his eyes registered what cRhett was holding - a metal pipe of some kind. He shook his head and tried to push himself away, trying to stand but still was too weak from being choked, causing him to stumble and fall backwards in front of cLink. He tried in vein to push himself backwards but cLink placed a heavy, booted foot on Link's arm, causing him to wince. He was pinned down by his arm and before he had a chance to yank his limb away he felt a mind numbing pain erupt from his right shoulder as the pipe came down. The world came to a halt as his body could do nothing more then take in a sharp breath of air. The shock was short lived, however, as a second swing to the same shoulder followed shortly after the first. This time earning a sharp scream from the man on the floor, his body twisting in pain. The pipe came down a third time, this time on the stomach, knocking the breath out of him once more, causing him to dry heave. Finally cLink gave him his arm back and he curled up on the floor, trying to keep himself from vomiting as he attempted to regain his breath. He still weakly tried to push himself up and fight back but he couldn't recall ever feeling this sort of pain in his life and his body just didn't want to cooperate with him.

By now Rhett had struggled hard enough the rope left small cuts on his arms, staining his arms and the rope red, but he was still tied too tightly to get out of them. He was, however, able to work the gag out of his mouth and spat it out, "Leave him alone! It wasn't even his idea, it was mine! Just let him go!"

cRhett was in the middle of raising the pipe for a fourth swing when cLink lightly grabbed his shoulder to stop him and they both looked over to Rhett. cRhett lowered the pipe and for a short moment of silence Rhett thought that maybe, just maybe, they'd let Link go. But as he watched cLink approach him with that foreign look on his familiar face, Rhett felt his heart sink. His stomach twisted into a knot as cLink spoke, his voice calm and sounded almost exactly like Link when he had a normal conversation but yet it held clear underlying dark emotions, "What did I say, Bo?" The normally fond nickname was used as nothing more then a condescending jab which made Rhett's face twitch a little as cLink went on, "I said that if you made a single sound, it would be worse for him, didn't I? So... you'll have nobody to blame for yourself with what's to come for him, remember that." cLink reached forward and patted Rhett on the cheek with a smile, relishing the look of hate, disgust and fear in the other mans eyes. Rhett tried to turn his head and bite at the hand touching him but cLink already pulled away and stood up, leaving Rhett unable to do more then glare.

By now Link had at least somewhat gained his composure back. His breathing was even and he could focus on something other then the pain, finally, though his nerves were still on fire. He tried to keep still, acting like he still couldn't function. He knew they had a very small window of escape, it was an almost certainty that he would be tied up soon too so he needed to fight back. But he couldn't do it yet... he needed to wait until he had the best opportunity, if he acted to soon they'd be able to stop him. If he waited to long it would be to late. He just needed to push the pain out of his mind and focus on something else, like anger. Yea, anger. He could feel his shoulder was fucked up again, if they made it out of this alive he would be needing physical therapy for it again and that pissed him off. He let himself just think about that, letting his natural temper build as he waited for the right moment to act.

cLink on the other hand looked up to his best friend, "I think it's his turn now." He shot a glare over at Rhett who glared back. cLink felt so much hate seething in his stomach for that bastard... The clones didn't want to be like this... neither of them were naturally hateful people. They were born from these two and even then they had seemed more happy and naive then the originals. But then that bastard made his little suggestion. If it wasn't for Rhett, they'd have never had to feel the pain of the knife or had to watch each other 'dying'. They would have never had to feel the indescribable pain of every layer of tissue slowly being grown back. They had been so happy and excited to live in the real world and do things... cLink missed how innocent and care free they had been. But because of these two, they were like this. Because of these two they would never be themselves again and they hated it. There was no going back, but at least they could make sure that they weren't the only ones to feel what it's like to break.

The silence seemed like a perfect opportunity to react. Link let the anger explode in his gut as he jumped up to his feet. Unfortunately he didn't take into account that his body would still be shaky from oxygen deprivation and pain so he stumbled almost immediately, which would have been embarrassing had it not been for the fact that the stumble put him just out of reach as cRhett swung the pipe. Missing Link, cRhett stumbled forward and lost his balance to which Link took advantage of and shoved into the taller man, throwing him to the ground before he made a line straight to Rhett on now much more solid legs. Rhett shook his head wildly, "No, Link! Get out of here!" Link wasn't about to listen, though... he knew leaving Rhett behind would be a death sentence for the man even if Link managed to immediately contact the police. So no matter what he was not leaving without him.

Link was barely a foot from his friend when cLink shook off his surprise and grabbed the pipe cRhett had dropped and whipped it at Link's back, who cried out in sudden pain and stumbled forward into the wall next to Rhett. He wasn't about to go down so easily this time, though, and spun out of the way of the oncoming fist of his clone which collided painfully with the wall. As cLink pulled back his hand and swore Link swung at the man and collided as hard as he could, which admittedly wasn't as hard as he had hoped, with his face, causing cLink to hit the ground slightly dazed. Immediately Link turned to Rhett, about to just up and carry the man if he had to.

The rebellion didn't last long, however, as he suddenly felt his body seize up and intense pain course through his veins as he fell to the ground. He lost total control over his body as electricity flooded through his nerves from the taser that cRhett held, having just recovered from his earlier mishap. cLink pushed himself off of the ground and rubbed his cheek a little before adjusting his glasses and walking over to the nearby table. From there he grabbed handcuffs and rope and brought them over to his Original.

cRhett stopped tazing the man and Link felt like his entire body was numb for a moment, still unable to move even though the pain had blessedly stopped. cLink yanked him up and handcuffed his arms behind his back before, with cRhett's help, brought him to a chair and tied him to it. His legs got tied to the chair's legs and his torso around the chair's back. This way there was no way for Link to get out no matter how hard he struggled.

With that, Rhett and Link's only real hope to escape was gone.

With a sigh and a slight shake of the head, cLink turned back to look at Rhett as Link lightly struggled in his seat, cursing the two of them out. cRhett went and put a gag on the tied brunet for now, not needing to hear his useless mumbling. They had anticipated some sort of fighting back which is exactly why they had gotten the taser in the first place but luckily they were now both restrained and that wouldn't change until it was certain they were unable to fight back anymore, be it too weak or too broken. cLink rubbed his cheek again, glad that Link hadn't had the strength to hit him full force but that didn't mean it didn't hurt. He was mainly glad it didn't break his glasses. Oh well, that was all said and done, now it was time to focus on Rhett. He was the protective one so weakening him a little first before focusing on his 'little brother' would probably be the best course of action.

cRhett was the first to speak, "You know, Rhett... we learned some things about the two of you over the past year or so." As they had made plans and prepared for today they had also kept an eye on the Originals all long, learning their schedules. Though the Clones knew for the most part the daily routine of these two, that didn't mean that there wasn't some changes or things they had plans for. That's why they knew this was the perfect time to strike, when the studio was empty for a few weeks and their families were unreachable. cRhett walked over and knelt down in front of Rhett, slowly unbuttoning his shirt as Rhett squirmed around to no avail, glaring with angry, confused eyes, "Get off me. Let us go." He tried to bite cRhett, being unable to do much more then that at the moment, but was met with a hard slap on the face which stung enough to daze him as cRhett went on calmly, "We found that you have something I don't have. It's pretty interesting."

cRhett had finished partially unbuttoning the shirt and pulled it down a little to reveal Rhett's chest. On his chest sat a silly little branding that he had for some strange reason agreed to getting when they accidentally had joined opposing roller gangs. cRhett stared at the brand, running gentle fingers over the scarred flesh, which made an involuntary shiver ripple down Rhett's spine. He didn't like where this was going... why did that matter? Why were they focusing on such an inconsequential mark on him? He didn't even want to try to think of why but he knew it couldn't be good.

cRhett pulled his fingers back and looked back into the greenish hues of his Original, "We figure that the reason I don't have that mark is because Link hadn't been aware of it when he dreamed us up. Personally I think it just seems so unfair that you get to have it but not me. Of course I'm not about to go through having to get one, so what option does that leave to even us out, hm?"

"Fuck off." The snarl that came from Rhett's mouth was surprising to even him, but he didn't show it. he just glared with the strongest hate to the Clone. Any sympathy he may have had for what the Clones went through was all but gone at this point but what could he do? He glanced over to Link - his Link , the real Link- and they shared a look which made his heart skip a beat. They both knew that there was really no obvious escape at this point. They were in trouble. A lot of trouble...

He heard a low chuckle from cRhett in front of him and turned to watch as his Clone stood up and stepped to the side. That's when cLink came into view and all of the anger that Rhett had in his body was replaced by a cold, icy terror at what he saw in cLink's hands.

A very sharp, red hot knife.

Rhett shook his head violently as he tried to make himself as small as possible as if that would save him from what was to come, "No, wait. What do you think you're doing?" cLink rolled his eyes and glanced over to cRhett, "Could you put the gag back on him? I don't want him screaming that close to my ear." Although they did hope to hear the Originals scream, not when their heads would be so close to them. So cRhett nodded and walked over, raising the gag back to Rhett's mouth and tying it tightly around his head. Rhett still shook his head, barely even aware of the gag as he tried in vain to push himself away but his back was already against the wall and he could hardly even move as it was. He was trapped and could do nothing more then watch in fear.

Link felt like he could faint at any moment, mumbling incoherent pleads through the gag for them to leave Rhett alone. It was bad enough that this was happening at all, let alone having to watch it. But to watch someone that looked exactly like himself do this to his best friend? Someone who technically was him in the first place, who had only really changed from recent different experiences. Were they really capable of doing this to each other in some way? Or was it because the clones and originals were still different people that this was happening? Did this mean that they, meaning the original him and Rhett, were capable of doing this sort of thing at all to somebody? That thought made him sick but what made him more sick was being forced to watch what was happening. The sight of 'himself' kneeling down in front of his best friend with what looked to be a red hot Rambo knife was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He squeezed his eyes closed and turned his head, unable to watch this. He knew what was coming and it twisted his stomach but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice. cRhett grabbed Link's head and forced it towards what was happening, prying his eyes open against his will until Link gave in, forced to watch in horror, still begging for them to stop.

cLink knelt down in front of Rhett and took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself. Okay this was it... this was when it would officially start. They had been talking about and planning and preparing for almost a year but right here, right now was when their revenge was really going to begin. He would have never thought that he'd be in this sort of position but here he was, holding a knife up to his 'best friend's' chest. But this wasn't his best friend at all, was it? It was just a copy of his best friend (or to be more exact, the original that his best friend was based from). His exterior wavered for a moment but as the memory of what happened in this very room one year ago flashed back into his memory, the hate rekindled again.

The second the knife touched his skin Rhett's body went rigid, his eyes wide in pain but he didn't make a noise. Instead, he tried to squirm away from the pain, not really able to go anywhere but it made things much more difficult for cLink, who looked up at his friend for assistance. cRhett sighed a little and let go of Link, who now couldn't bring himself to look away, and walked over to the others. He shifted Rhett a little and sat behind him, wrapping his arms tightly around the original to keep him still, "Okay, Brother. Go ahead. And be careful."

"Thanks, Rhett." With that he took another deep breath and went back to work. The knife would cool off to quickly and be unable to cauterize if they didn't work fast so he brought the hot metal back down on the skin. He didn't want to cut too deeply, just the layer of skin, so he tried to hold his hand steady as possible to make a smooth cut. The smell and sound of burning hair, blistering flesh and sizzling blood filled the room, making Link sick and even making the Clones squirm a little but they ignored it. Rhett wasn't aware of any of that, however. His entire body felt like it was on fire and he had his eyes squeezed shut. He couldn't think of anything other then the mind numbing pain radiating out from his chest as the slab of skin was slowly filleted off his body and immediately cauterized by the blade.

cLink moved slowly enough to draw out the pain, but swift enough to make a clean cut with minimal blood. He pressed the hottest part of the now cooling knife against the few parts of the wound that seemed to leak blood, making sure to seal the entire area before sitting back to admire his work. Rhett meanwhile just panted, his body limp in the Clone's arms. He felt exhausted and the pain on his chest was more then ten times worse then the original branding had been. His body involuntarily shivered a few times as he tried desperately to calm his nerves. He only vaguely registered the taunting voice behind him, "Now we're even."

cLink grabbed a paper towel and picked up the removed skin, turning his nose up at it, "That's gross, Rhett". He stood up and tossed it into the garbage and went to place the knife back on the table so they could focus on Link again. Of course... cLink was still Link in a way and inevitably burnt himself on the still hot metal. It wasn't hot enough to melt skin anymore but it was still hot enough to hurt pretty badly. He jumped, the knife clattering to the floor as he waved his hand in pain and blew on it a little, "Ow!"

cRhett laughed and shook his head, standing up and letting Rhett slump again the wall, "Really, man? You burnt yourself?" Of course he did, why was that a surprise? He'd have to pay a little closer attention to the man while they were here.

Link was too busy clenching his eyes closed, trying to pretend none of this was happening and clear his mind from the horror he just witnessed to notice as the Clone's attentions now turned to him.


	5. Chapter 5

**~There's bullet-holes where my compassion used to be -And there is violence in my heart~**

The Clones turned their attention over to Link who now had his head down with his eyes closed. Occasionally he shook his head slightly as if trying to will this whole situation away. He'd probably have been muttering as well if he wasn't gagged. The Clones glanced at each other, sharing a quick silent decision before nodding and walking over to him. cLink stood to the side, mainly keeping an eye on Rhett and being ready to help cRhett should he need it. cRhett bent down in front of Link and roughly grabbed his chin, forcing his head up to face him. Link wasn't crying yet but he sure seemed like he was about to, his eyes red from forced back tears. Oh the wonders of hurting them in front of each other... it wounded them in ways deeper then any physical injury could, "Don't think you've gotten off that easy, Neal. Your turn."

cRhett's hand moved down from Link's face, sliding down the slightly scruffy cheek and thin neck down to the smooth fabric where he slowly unbuttoned the man's shirt, keeping eye contact the whole time which made Link squirm uncomfortably as his bare chest was revealed. There was no hiding the fear in Link's eyes as his shirt was pushed open... when Rhett's shirt was unbuttoned the man had part of his chest skinned and burnt. What did they plan on doing to Link? He squirmed a little as cRhett eyed him up and down a bit before speaking, his voice soft in what would normally have been a soothing sort of voice with a hint of scolding to it, "You know... you did this, Link. This is all your fault." He slid his hand back up the man's neck to his mouth, gently untying the gag and placing it next to him on the floor. Despite all of the pain and fear Link felt right now he somehow still found it in himself to collect all of the spit from his mouth and spat it at cRhett's face.

cRhett blinked a little, honestly rather surprise at that sort of reaction. He knew Link wouldn't break _that_ easily but it was still a surprise that he had that much fight still in him. Quickly he collected himself, not reacting outside of slowly wiping the saliva from his face. He then reared his hand back and slapped Link on the face, hard enough to send his glasses clattering to the floor feet away, the sharp sound ringing in the room.

The pain in his cheek from the slap was bad enough, burning up and down his face but his mind went temporarily numb for other reasons. Link kept his face turned and down, panting a little with his blue eyes wide in utter shock before cRhett roughly grabbed his chin and yanked his face forward again to meet his own icy stare. Link barely registered the pain radiating from his tightly held jaw as he stared into those gray-green eyes and for the first time in his life actually felt fear looking into that familiar face. The feeling was foreign and chilled him to the core, making him want desperately to look away but he felt his gaze was frozen in place. Rhett had always been his security blanket... the man that Link could turn to no matter what when things got tough. More importantly then that was the fact that Rhett was his protector. When people bullied him or were mean to him in even the smallest ways, Rhett was there to keep him safe. The gentle giant was his body guard whether he actually needed one or not and as much as Link would never actually admit it, he relished and in fact rather _needed_ that feeling of safety and security. Link had never felt real danger or fear when he was around Rhett, because he knew the man would keep him safe. And even when they fought or Rhett got mad, Link never felt the man would hurt him under any circumstance.

And now here 'Rhett' was, hurting him... taunting him in ways that were most certainly not playful and harmless. It was one thing to get pissed off over a harmless slap gone wrong but this was a real slap, one that was _actually_ meant to cause harm. Sure this wasn't actually the same Rhett as his own Rhett. This was still, essentially, a different person. But this person still sounded like Rhett, looked like Rhett, somewhat acted like Rhett - the DNA of the two still technically would match. So there was a part in the back of Link's mind that just couldn't help but associate this man as Rhett and that made this situation so much worse. Still, though, he held in his tears, continually telling himself that this wasn't Rhett. That they'd be okay.

Still holding onto Link's face, cRhett calmly spoke again, his expression and tone unchanged from before he had been spat on, "As I was saying, you're the one who did this."

Link tried to shake his head, only barely trembling it back and forth in the tight grip, "N-no... No. It- We... We didn't do anything. How were we supposed to know?! Had we known-"

"No, Link. Not we... you. Who's the one who drank the stagnant water and had a hallucination in the first place, hm? We come from your head, not Rhett's. He's the one guilty for deciding to murder us and you're at fault for not talking him out of it. But more then that, you are the one guilty for making us happen in the first place. If it wasn't for _you_ dreaming us up, we wouldn't be here right now, would we? You two would be still sitting at home enjoying your time off. Rhett would still have a slab of his flesh. You both would be fine... but you did this."

Link just stared up at cRhett, his brows furrowed and he was unable to really think about what he could possibly think or do or say. His cheek stung and his jaw hurt. His stomach was in tight knots and his shoulder throbbed but more then anything else he was terrified. Not only that but cRhett's words were ringing in his ears, bouncing around in his skull and becoming deafeningly loud. His fault? No... it couldn't be his fault. How could he have possibly known that this was going to happen? That the hallucination would somehow become real?! But... at the same time cRhett was right. He was the one who had chosen to drink from the very clearly unsafe puddle of stagnate water. He made a conscious decision to do that and even before that who was it that lost their phone in the first place? He did, not Rhett... this all was him. This all came down to Link...

...He did this...

No... no he couldn't let himself think that right now. They were going through too much as it was to let that weigh down on him as well. But the guilt was already gnawing at his gut, leaving a gaping hole. cRhett let go and stood up as Link squeezed his eyes closed and lowered his head, shaking it violently, "Just leave us alone, Dammit! We never meant to make you in the first place! I didn't know! And we didn't know you'd suffer so much when we killed you!"

"Didn't realize!?" cLink's voice cracked a little in his outburst. His temper was equal to Link's meaning he was very short, very hot tempered so that statement was more then enough to really get under his skin and made him explode, "What the hell do you mean 'didn't realize'?!" Though Link himself never really turned to violence when his temper got a hold of him, the same could no longer be said about cLink. He snatched up the pipe from the ground and without a second of delay stepped forward and swung it hard at Link's chest, putting his whole body into the swing with enough force the chair rocked back on two legs for a moment before settling back down on four. The sudden sharp pain made Link's body go rigid and his breath hitch, nearly causing him to go into shock. "You fucking tried to _kill us!_ " Another full force swing to Link's side, this time causing cRhett to have to grab the chair to keep it from falling over. This swing had earned a scream, and it would be a wonder if nothing was broken, "And you didn't realize we'd _suffer!?_ " cLink swung again, and again, hitting whatever flesh he could connect with on Link's chest, stomach, arms and legs. Each brutal blow earned a scream and Link was positive at least _something_ got fractured if not completely broken but there was too much pain to figure out what.

This went on for a few moments before cRhett stepped forward, gently grabbing cLink's arm and getting him to stop so he didn't beat Link to death, which is clearly where this was going if he didn't step in, "Shh... shh... it's okay. Calm down, Buddy-roll. We're okay now. Just relax." He rubbed cLink's back and shoulder, giving him a sort of half hug as cLink tried to gather himself. The brunet was still furious but he took a few deep breaths, leaning into cRhett and letting himself calm down at least a little. He dropped the pipe and took off his glasses, rubbing his face a bit before slipping the glasses back on and looking up at cRhett, "Okay... I think I'm fine now."

Link, meanwhile, sat limply in the chair. His body was exhausted and it hurt so very bad. He was surprised nothing was noticeably broken but who really knew at this point. He was sure something was cracked, there was no way there wouldn't be. Either way his whole body hurt to much to be able to tell... he just wished this was over with already.

cRhett hung back for a few moments, eyeing his friend to try to make sure of that statement. The last thing they needed was to prematurely kill them or something, then all of their planning and preparation would have been for nothing. Luckily it did seem like cLink calmed down so he nodded a little to himself and shifted over to the table that was next to the chair Link was strapped to. In the corner was an electric counter top stove with a ceramic bowl on it that had some sort of silver liquid in it. cRhett slipped on an insulted glove and pulled the while thing over to him and glanced at Link who, despite his pain, couldn't help but look up in confusion and worry.

"This is soldering metal, Link. You know, that metal stuff that you can melt to fix electronics and stuff? It's supposed to melt somewhere around 400 degrees Fahrenheit but we needed to make it hotter so it would stay liquid longer. It took a lot of work to make an electric heating element to get as hot as we needed it to but we figured it out." He grabbed a thick metal spoon from the table and dipped it into the liquid, testing it's consistency, "I'm not sure how hot it is, to be honest. But it's hot... I can tell you that. And it's metal. Like tar it'll stick you so you couldn't wipe it off even if you had your hands free."

cLink stepped behind Link and tilted his chair back on two legs so that Link was at a slight angle and even more immobilized, shoving the rope around his chest up to his shoulders to expose more of his torso. Link's eyes grew wide at the realization of what they were about to do. Despite the pain and weakness in every muscles of his body he fought as hard as he could, the rope and handcuffs cutting deep into his skin but he didn't care, he needed to get away. Unfortunately it did nothing. Link threw away any sort of attempt of acting tough and begged for them to stop, "No... No! Stop please, we'll make it up to you just please stop!" Sweat glistened off his entire body, matting his hair to his forehead as his heart beat so hard against his chest it hurt.

This time there was no gag to muffle the sounds of screams and though Link was restrained he still had enough room to struggle and beg. cRhett picked the spoon up out of the liquid and held it with a steady hand over the man in the chair. There was no way cLink would have been capable of doing this, heck he burnt himself on the knife for goodness sake. If he had tried to do this the man would have ended up rushed to the hospital so it was a good thing they decided to do this to Link. cRhett teasingly hovered the spoon inches away from Link's chest, forcing the man to stop squirming lest he bump into it and splash it on himself. His chest was rising and falling in rapid succession as he violently shook his head side to side, eyes glued on the spoon. No words came out, though, as any thoughts outside of his fear were erased from his mind.

Meanwhile on the floor against the wall Rhett had at least mentally recovered from his own ordeal and he could see every detail about the scene that was playing out in front of him. His body was still in to much pain and shock to bother listening to his brain telling him to get up. Even if he could control himself very good he was still tied up in a terrible position, making standing still impossible, let alone moving. But he still should be doing something, _anything_. It was just a little fucking cut and a little fucking rope! He should be saving Link and getting them out of there but here he was just sitting here absolutely useless, watching his best friend get hurt so bad. He could do little more then weakly beg and plead with them to stop, throwing any ounce of dignity out the window in hopes to save them - to save Link.

But it was no use... they didn't stop. Slowly cRhett tipped the spoon, the liquid metal hanging onto the edge of the solid metal for a moment before a couple of drops released and fell to Link's skin. The pain was almost too much and his entire body stiffened, his eyes growing wide in shock. Not satisfied with that reaction, cRhett tipped the spoon a little more, letting a small stream dribble out and onto Link's chest, snaking along the skin and through the hair as it slowly dripped down his body. The smell of burning flesh and hair immediately filled the room but this time it was accompanied by an ear piecing scream as the skin immediately began to blister and burn under the heated liquid metal, leaving ribbon like patterns of burnt skin.

Rhett had to close his eyes and flinch away from the sound, shrinking into himself as the sound of Link's animalistic cries of pain emanated from the man's throat a second time, echoing through the small room as cRhett poured more thin lines of hot liquid metal on his chest as if almost fascinated by it. True, the red hot knife that Rhett felt was hotter but the knife was quick. This stuff was blistering and burning and hanging onto the skin, not allowing any relief as it was drawn out over and over again.

The clone took his time, not wanting to rush anything or cause too much damage. Most importantly they didn't want to send Link into shock, but that just worked out better because it meant he could draw the pain on for longer. cRhett poured and dripped a few more spoonfuls along the man's exposed skin as Link screamed and writhed in pain, begging incoherently for him to stop. Finally cRhett stood back and admired his work. There were lines of solidified metal along Link's chest, stomach and shoulders - angry blisters of skin in ribbon like patterns making designs on his hot, irritated flesh. Link's head was hanging back exposing his throat as he panted and sobbed, still occasionally shaking his head mindlessly now and then.

A small smile tugged at cRhett's lips and he looked over at cLink, raising his eyebrow and tilting his head at Link. cLink looked at Link then back to his friend, smiling and nodding. He pushed the rope that was at Link's shoulders down a little, causing Link to cry out in pain again as it scraped the blistered and bruised flesh. Finally cRhett took another spoonful and hovered it over Link's throat, "Hurting you is so much fun, Link." With that he carefully dripped the metal on Link's sensitive throat. As metal seared it's way down the man's tender neck and down his collarbone Link's whole body tensed up, yanking at his bindings as he let out one last scream before his body gave out and he lost consciousness, becoming limp outside of small involuntary shivers.

cRhett chuckled a little bit and put the spoon down on the table, eyeing the unconscious man, "You know, he screams good." cLink laughed as he straightened up and set the chair back on it's four legs, "Hey man, don't say that. I sound like that." He gave cRhett a bemused look as the blonde chuckled and shook his head, "Oh, right. You're right. Sorry, man." He chuckled again but they both knew that they agreed on the statement... Link screamed amazingly.

Meanwhile Rhett was in silent and absolute shock. He wasn't sure when he had stopped screaming for them to stop but his throat was raw from how desperately he had tried to make them quit hurting Link - quit torturing Link.

 _Torture_. That's what this was... torture. Not just hurting... not just beating... torture. Rhett wasn't sure how well he could handle that fact but there was no denying that whether they got out of this alive or not, he would never be able to forget the sight of Link struggling in vein as hot metal was poured onto him. He would never forget the sound of Link's screaming and sobbing in a way Rhett had never heard before. He would never forget the scent of Link's burning flesh. Rhett could do little more then gaze off into a random point on the floor with wide eyes, taking slow, shaky breaths. There was no denying it - this was real... _this was real_. This wasn't a dream or a bad joke or anything else. This was _real_ and these mother fuckers meant business. And there was nothing that they could do about it... the Clones had so much preparation under their belts and on top of that they knew every move Rhett and Link would think of. They couldn't even try to think like someone else because the Clones would probably be able to anticipate that they'd try to think like other people. They were trapped and they were being tortured and they might just die here. The feeling of his hope of escape and survival being crushed was enough to start forming cracks in his psyche, but he wasn't broken just yet...

The metal on Link's body was partially cooled by now, at least enough to solidify, so cRhett decided to clean it up. Luckily for Link the sweat on his body had helped create a sort of protective barrier of steam at the heat of the metal, just barely keeping the metal from adhering to the flesh. Some of the melted skin stuck to the metal, so there was some blood after cRhett finished cleaning up but nothing too bad. Once all the metal was off the extent of damage was much more noticeable. There were angry, blistering lines of burnt flesh snaking around on his neck, stomach, chest and shoulders. On top of that his throat and other exposed parts of skin started showing the angry bruises from the choking and beatings he received. Link looked like a mess and Rhett could barely take his eyes off the man. His eyes were red and tear stained as he knew that he failed. He failed to protect him - failed to save him.. he failed Link...

cLink turned back to Rhett once they finished up cleaning the brunet, "Well, we're going out for lunch. We'll let you two rest for now. Then the fun can really continue." He paused for a moment and looked over to Link's limp frame and smirked to himself before glancing back at Rhett, "Good job protecting him." That was met with a very noticeable flinch as if Rhett had been slapped, causing cLink to chuckle and walk over, bending down to speak softly in Rhett's ear, "Good job at protecting me, Rhett. This is your fault." Rhett closed his eyes and turned his head away. He knew it wasn't Link saying that but... it was still Link's voice and it felt like a knife being shoved into his heart to hear those words. Especially because he knew those words were true. How would Link ever forgive him? How would he ever forgive himself?

With that cRhett and cLink turned to leave the room and Rhett looked back up to Link. He partially hoped that maybe Link would wake up once the others were gone and they could figure something out but at the same time Rhett hoped Link stayed asleep so he wouldn't have to feel that pain spidering along his body. Before the clones left the room cLink paused in the doorway and looked back to Rhett. He smiled in a way that under any other circumstance may have been considered pleasant or even sweet, "Stay your Mythical Best." With that he winked and was gone, the soft click of the lock being the only sound before Rhett was alone with his thoughts.


	6. Chapter 6

**~We sweat and laugh and scream here. - 'Cause life is just a dream here.~**

Silence stretched out in every direction, ringing in Rhett's ears. It was almost deafening but the sound of Link's pained breathing made it even worse. Rhett looked around, trying to figure out what he could possibly do and if he saw something how could he do it. Maybe if he could get up and out of these ropes he could grab a weapon and wait for the clones to come back, but he couldn't even so much as move his arms, let alone stand up. His body was still on fire from the slab of flesh they had cut from his chest and sealed up and Rhett did his best to not look down at it, knowing he had other things to focus on other then himself right now. His arms and legs were going numb from being tied for so long and he had already tried non-stop to get his arms out of the ropes, being rewarded with nothing more then stinging as the rope rubbed off skin. None of that mattered, though... all of his own pain paled in comparison to his best friend. Link had clearly gotten the brunt of the damage and he was already broken and bruised. The worst part was that the clones didn't seem to be finished with them... they had more planned from the sound of it and Rhett wasn't sure they could take it, especially not Link. Would they even get out of this alive?

Rhett continued to fight in the silence, soft gasps or whimpers of pain escaping his lips now and then as he pushed all thoughts from his mind and struggled against the ropes to no avail. The Clones had tied him in a way that made it relatively impossible to push himself up to his feet and even if he did, somehow, there was no way he could possibly take a step. He assumed that the Clones had probably practiced on their own Rhett, learning how to tie the large man to make it absolutely impossible for him to get the upper hand. Though that made Rhett wonder what would happen even if he did get out? The Clones were versions of them, and Rhett knew if he was in their position he would set a trap just in case.

Rhett's gaze slowly returned to Link, unable to keep his eyes away from his friend's broken figure. His skin was burnt and blistered in ribbon patterns all the way from his neck and shoulders down to his waistline. Much of his exposed skin was beginning to show large, dark bruises and little patches of bright blood littered his skin and clothes from where the edge of the pipe had cut into the flesh. Rhett had seen Link in bad shape multiple times in their lives but this was the worst Link had ever looked. Rhett had hoped that Link would have at least gotten a moment of reprieve as he sat there unconscious but it didn't seem like that was the case as Link's body occasionally shivered, probably from the burns. His breathing seemed strained and rough with little gentle whimpers occasionally floating from his pained throat.

And it was Rhett's fault... all of this was Rhett's fault. Link was like that because of Rhett. The blonde couldn't shake these thoughts from his head as he stared at Link, the words cLink whispered to him echoing in his mind and mixing with the screams and begs from his own Link. Rhett was supposed to be able to protect Link from everyone and everything, no matter what happened. It had been like that since they were kids... even if Rhett felt sick or in pain he was always there by Link's side, keeping him safe and protected and now he failed. What's more, Rhett wasn't even that bad off right now! Sure, yes, he had a chunk of his flesh filleted from his body and every nerve in his being still felt like it was on fire because of that and yes, his arms were raw from constantly straining against the ropes, but these things paled in comparison to what Link went through, in his opinion. Rhett's only real enemy right now were ropes... _ropes!_ And yet he still failed at protecting his little brother. He just sat to the side and watched as Link got tortured, not even properly tied down. His body was just tied in a way that made getting into a standing position, even with the help of the wall, pretty much impossible. Even if he did manage to get standing he would hardly have any balance and wouldn't be able to move a single step... the clones really knew what the duo was capable of, but that still didn't matter. Rhett should have been able to think of something... instead he had only been able to watch and scream.

Logically he just kept trying to tell himself that it was because the clones knew everything about them - they knew their capabilities and had most certainly made sure they wouldn't be able to accidentally slip free but that didn't mean anything. Logic had no place here, if it did then they wouldn't be getting tortured by hallucination versions of themselves made real.

Rhett continued to mindlessly fight against his bindings, knowing it was a lost cause but not being able to let himself give up, still needing to try to save Link. But his mind still felt dark, unable to do much more then blame himself for all of this. He had felt something was off about 'Link' when he showed up... why didn't he act on that? He should have been more cautious, but he failed... And even after they grabbed him he should have been able to protect Link and stop them but he failed at that too. Hell Link had even had a chance to escape for a few moments! He would have certainly been able to run out the building had he left Rhett behind but he didn't, having stopped to try to save the blonde and Rhett hated that! It had gotten Link captured and Rhett hated it... he hated that Link put himself in so much harms way because of Rhett. It was Rhett's fault. All his fault...

Finally Rhett tore his eyes away and squeezed them shut, trying to hold back the tears that started to flow freely, unable to be wiped away. They stung every time they hit his raw wound but Rhett didn't care about that, all he cared about was protecting Link and the fact that he had failed to do so. His body finally stopped struggling against his bindings as he slumped into the wall, feeling tears silently slip down his cheeks, wishing he could even just trade places with him. Anything to ease the other's suffering. Anything to make up to him how much Rhett had failed him.

"Hey there, Bo... Don't cry..." Rhett looked up at the sound of the familiar voice, able to tell a very distinct difference between the voice that just spoke and the voice that had taunted him a little while earlier. At first he thought he had been hearing things but then his eyes fell on Link who was looking over to him. He had pain etched in every feature and it dripped off every syllable in his voice, but despite that the brunet still gave a weak, small smile, "We'll get through this, Rhett. I promise we will..." Although if Link was honest he wasn't really so sure about that. These Clones seemed to hate them more then Link thought was possible and there was literally nothing to stop them from doing anything they wanted. But Rhett was hurting, so it didn't matter what Link felt or what he thought... all he wanted was to try to help Rhett feel better, even if for only a moment.

Rhett smiled weakly, blinking the tears out of his eyes so he could try to see his friend a little more clearly. He tried to focus on Link's face and not his bruised body, just clinging to the fact that he was still alive and coherent... That's what mattered... they were both still alive, "I'm sorry, man... I'm so sorry..." His voice got cut off as his throat tightened in an other soft sob. He looked away and took a deep, raspy breath to try to clear his head and keep his emotions at bay before looking back over to Link who only furrowed his brow at the blonde, "What do you mean? You didn't do anything."

"Exactly, Link... I didn't do anything... I didn't keep you safe." He lowered his head and squeezed his eyes closed, feeling another wave of tears threaten to make their way back out despite how hard he fought to keep them in.

Link stared at his friend for a few moments... he couldn't say he ever really saw Rhett like this but then again they'd never exactly been in a situation like this before, had they? Seeing Rhett in so much pain just hurt Link in ways no hot metal or steel pipe ever could. This wasn't even Rhett's fault... it was his... it was all Link's fault. But he knew better then to try to tell Rhett that... the larger man would only try to deny it and would likely blame himself even more so Link kept those feelings locked inside of him and shook his head, "No, Man... there's no way we could have stopped this. We didn't even know they were alive... we couldn't have prevented something we didn't even know was a possibility. Besides that, they're clones of us... they know every move we'd pull..."

Rhett sighed a little bit, not having the will to argue. Honestly he had a feeling not even Link really believed those words despite the fact that he knew Link was technically right... but at the same time he felt there should have been at least something he could have done. Anything to prevent this from happening... So he just nodded and looked up at Link again after a moment, taking a deep breath, "I love you, man... Whatever happens, whatever they do... don't forget that. I'd never hurt you, Link."

That made Link smile softly, really having needed those words of comfort, "I love you too, Rhett. We'll get through this... I promise we will."

They shared a short moment of much needed silence, staring at each other and gathering as much strength as possible before the soft sound of the door opening filtered into the room once more.


	7. Chapter 7

**~Smashed up my everything - Smashed up all that was true** ~

"Hope you guys didn't miss us too much." cRhett laughed as he made his way into the room, cLink hanging back for a moment to lock the door back up just to be on the safe side. Then they both made their way to the tied men and Rhett felt his anger bubble up again, having been renewed due to his small talk with Link. His fight flared to life and he yanked at the ropes around him, still doing nothing but cutting the thick rope into his skin but he was trying. He snarled a little as he saw the clone of himself move over to Link, "Will you just leave us alone already!? You've proven your point! What more do you want with us?! How can you even do this to us!? We're you!"

cRhett snorted a little bit, "Big talk coming from a man who murdered a version of himself and his best friend, who wanted nothing more then to get along and make everyone happy, in cold blood." His hard green eyes focused on the ropes, long fingers gliding over them and untying the knots to pull Link from the chair, though left on the ones that kept his arms behind his back. His eyes showed no emotion other then hate but inside he still was broken... inside he still hurt.

He, like cLink, remembered when they were happy and carefree. They honestly had thought it was so cool to be in the 'real' world. They wanted to get along with the Originals and do awesome things. They thought that they and the Originals could do lots of fun things together and really improve everyone's lives. Sure they wanted to be done with GMM but they had actually gotten access to life. Of course they wanted to experience it in ways they never knew before. But they could have easily thought up a plan so the Originals had kept the show while the Clones did their own thing. They were so carefree and loved life... cRhett only could imagine what life could have been like. How happy they could have been, how much they could have done, how carefree their lives would be. But no... these two destroyed it. These two killed the happiness that was inside of the Clones. These two subjected them to pain that was far worse then anything they were experiencing now and far longer then imaginable. That sort of thing killed the positivity in a person. That sort of thing twisted a person and both cLink and cRhett felt it and they hated it beyond what words could say but there was no changing it. They just wished they could be innocent again... happy again...

Rhett opened his mouth to protest cRhett's argument but the clone interrupted before he could, "Like you said, we're you. So why don't you ask yourself how we can do this." He glanced up a with a glint in his eyes that made Rhett's blood run cold, "If we're doing this shouldn't that mean that in some capacity... you're capable of it as well? We used to be no different then you..."

Link struggled as he felt the bindings slip away, but he was still unable to move much. His body was weak and his arms were behind his back so there was little more that he could do besides squirm weakly, "No, we could never do this! We're not like you, I could never hurt Rhett!" cLink tilted his head, raising a brow at his double and seeing a perfect opportunity, "Oh?" He walked over to Rhett and stared at him for a few moments before swinging his leg back and planting his booted foot hard as he could squarely in Rhett's side, earning a pained and surprised crying yelp from the blonde man. Link cringed, a wave of guilt washing over him since what he said had caused Rhett to get kicked. The force of the kick had caused the taller man to fall to his side a few feet away from where he had been sitting, taking a few deep breaths to reorient himself from the sudden blunt force. cLink looked at him a few moments with cold eyes before up to Link, "You sure about that? Because that was pretty darn easy if you ask me. Kind of fun, actually. Remember... we're from your head... we're the two of you. We only went through a few different experiences. We couldn't do what you couldn't do."

Of course, both of the clones knew that this wasn't quite true. The truth of the matter was, yes... the originals were capable of all they were doing. But not on each other... just like the clones could never hurt each other. The bond that the clones shared was just as strong as the bond the originals had... it was a deep, special connection that nothing could tarnish. Never could they hurt each other. But the Originals didn't know this... as far as they could see, this meant that they could potentially do this to each other - they potentially wanted to see each other hurt in some dark recess of their minds. And the Clones knew just how terrifying of a thought that was... they too had struggled with it until they managed to figure out the difference. Figure out that the 'same person' or not, they didn't share the same state of being, or in turn the same connection to the other pair as to each other. Though they 'were' the same people, they also were totally different people in each other's eyes.

The originals didn't know and it was obvious. The gears were turning in their heads... the thought was planted in their minds. Link stared at his clone completely appalled and shook his head hard. He could never do that to Rhett... Never. But... technically he did do that to Rhett, didn't he? They were clones, sure.. but clones were still direct copies and came straight from his head. If they were doing this with no mercy... wouldn't that maybe mean...

Unfortunately Link couldn't try to sort out the thought for any longer. cRhett had him out of the chair and roughly tossed him over to his double which shoved him hard backwards to the wall next to Rhett. The blonde squirmed, attempting to sit up or at least shove his body into the clone but he could barely move and cRhett was already yanking him up anyway. Rhett wiggled and squirmed as hard as he could, putting up a pretty good fight but it ended up to be nothing more then annoyance as cRhett managed to get him tied down to the same chair Link had just came out of. Once again, Rhett felt the useless dismay wash over his body that he was mostly in good shape to fight and yet he was stuck and useless... great protector he was.

Link squirmed for a bit but he couldn't get away, he was held too tightly and his body was too weak to fight. To his extreme surprise, cLink didn't hurt him...Instead the clone ran a hand down Link's side where there weren't any burns. Link's skin was still incredibly sensitive from all the pain he'd gone through and he shivered involuntarily, not sure f it felt good or not but not liking it either way, "Get away from me, dammit." He tried to push the clone away, shoving with his less injured shoulder but it was useless as cLink continued to run his fingertips over Link, causing the man to shiver more and stare at his double with confused eyes, "What are you doing?"

cLink didn't answer as he slowly pulled Link away from the wall, cRhett stepping behind them and pressing their bodies close together similarly to when Link was first cornered. Link was too weak to struggle very much and he knew he was stuck. His heartbeat quickened as he felt the warm bodies pressed on either side of him and two sets of hands began to roam around his unbelievably tender body, strangely careful of the injuries they themselves had inflicted. Link tried to squirm away... to push them back... anything, but cRhett grabbed him by the waist and pulled it back into his own hips which made Link freeze. He had a very, very bad feeling about this right now and it was making him feel sick to his stomach. They wouldn't though.. they-they couldn't... There's no way they'd go that far...

Slowly cRhett drew a knife from his belt and carefully slid it under Link's shirt, keeping the sharp side out so it would slice the thin fabric while still keeping the back of the blade pressed against Link's skin. Link shivered at the feeling of cold, unforgiving steel and the sound of the shirt tearing down the back and arms before the fabric was dropped to the floor. Before his head could fully wrap around the fact that he was shirtless he felt the cold sting of the blade run down his back... it wasn't painful, though. It was gentle and harmless but caused just enough of a painful sting to make his body shiver and his hair stand on end. What the crap... Link squirmed away, confused and terrified. Why were they suddenly being almost gentle? Why was his body reacting the way it was to the gentle touch of a deadly knife in his enemies hands? Were they really doing what he feared?

That's when he felt it... felt his double's hand trail down his side to his hip which he squeezed before down the side of his thigh... then up the front of his leg and finally ending in a squeeze to the natural bulge that rested under the jean fabric. A sharp intake of breath was all that could be heard from Link as he stared at his own double with wide, fearful eyes. He tried to swallow deeply, the lump in his throat making it hard to breath but his mouth was dry. Link could hear his heart pounding in his ears, drowning out the sounds in the room at the moment as he stared at 'himself', shaking his head a little. N-No... no no no. They... they couldn't be... They wouldn't. Were they really going to go where Link thought they were? The idea made his knees shake and his head feel light from fear and disgust, the only reason he remained upright was the grip cRhett had on him. He couldn't get away... there was nothing he could do. He was at their mercy and he was terrified and sickened.

His silent question was answered as cLink gave him a smirking, dangerous grin and ran a hand up Link's neck. He surprisingly gently cupped Link's face and pulled him in, pressing their lips together. Gently cLink sucked on Link's lips, enjoying his own taste for a moment. Sweet and with a hint of coffee still lingering on the edges. Link tried to pull his head back in disgust but cRhett placed a hand on the back of his head, keeping him in place as cLink forced his tongue into the original's mouth, exploring the soft space and thoroughly enjoying himself. His fingers lightly caressed Link's cheek and hairline as his other hand tickled it's way up and down Link's skin and along his crotch.

Desperately Link tried to shrink away but that only pushed him further into cRhett, who wrapped his arms around Link's waist again and began to give him little kisses on his bare shoulders. Link's face twisted in disgust as he was finally freed from the kiss, gasping for breath and trying to shrug cRhett off his shoulders.

"Get the fuck off of him!" Rhett's snarl was more akin to a roar from where he sat in the chair. He strained the ropes more and they would have probably broken had the clones not invested in good quality stuff. Realizing just how powerless he was to stop this from happening he felt tears sting at his eyes and his heart seemed to skip a couple of beats. The vicious anger turned around into weak desperation, his voice small and soft as he begged, "Please... take me instead. Just leave him alone... please... please..."

cLink heard the desperation in Rhett's voice and glanced over to him, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face before he leaned in and sucked on the front of Link's throat, who was at this point as stiff as a board with a pitiful, desperate look on his face. cLink chuckled deeply as he ran a tongue around Link's Adam's Apple before speaking in a slow drawl, his old accent coming out a bit thicker then usual, "Oh come on, Rhett... don't be so worried. He want's this, trust me."

"I do not!" Link's voice was a couple of octaves higher then normal and cracked but cLink only turned to look over to him with a soft smile, his eyes glinting as their faces were inches apart, "Oh, don't lie. You've always wondered what this would be like... you've always wondered how it would feel to be powerless... taken by the mercy of someone else." His words were velvety smooth... dripping like rich honey from his lips almost seductively and knowingly which only made Link more uncomfortable.

Link shook his head hard, "N-No... not like this!" He would admit the thought had crossed his mind, of course cLink knew that... but a fantasy was one thing. This was something completely different. He didn't want this!

"Oh... are you sure about that?" cLink's hand brushed lightly against Link's crotch again, which at this point was quite noticeably more tender then it had been a few moments ago. His body was certainly reacting to all of this and he hated it... he hated it so very much. He didn't want this, he really didn't. But his skin was starting to heat up and his heart quickened for reasons other then fear now. His heart and mind were crying out to get out of this situation and get away but his body was having other ideas and he couldn't believe it. He never felt so betrayed by his own self.

cLink chuckled a little bit as he slipped a hand down to tease at the rim of Link's jeans, tugging on the fabric a little as Link whimpered pitifully. He normally would be putting up so much more of a fight, even if he knew he'd ultimately loose, just for the fact he'd be able to then say he tried. But for the most part he behaved because of the simple fear of what they'd do to Rhett if he fought to hard. Clearly they were perfectly fine with using them against each other and punishing them because of each other, and Link didn't want any more to happen to Rhett even if it meant it would be worse off for him. cLink looked over to Link with a smirk, knowing exactly why the man wasn't fighting, "Just give in... you know you want to. You love this... you need this."

Link's body jolted a little and he gasped, feeling a light bite of pain course from the side of his neck and down into the rest of his body. He glanced over and saw cRhett holding what looked like the little square box part of the shocking dog collars they had used on GMM at one point. The sensation caught every nerve in his body on fire as cLink rubbed his own hardening crotch against Link's. Link's heartbeat was quick, almost painful inside of his chest and his eyes were wide and dilated... but at the same time he couldn't possibly deny how turned on his body was getting by this. And he hated it... he was disgusted by himself more then words could ever say. He couldn't even bring himself to look at Rhett for much needed comfort... he just felt so dirty, disgusting and wrong.

cLink grinned a little bit as he licked up Link's neck and cRhett moved his lips to Link's shoulder and began kissing and nibbling him, causing Link's skin to crawl from the assault of two mouths. After a few more moments cLink reached down and gently squeezed Link's bulge, earning a soft, deep moan from the man which immediately turned into a pathetic, disgusted sob. Link squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head hard, trying to push the feeling away, "St-stop..." His voice was weak, he could hardly believe that this was happening. His mind had barely managed to accept the fact that they were being tortured by his own hallucination versions of them turned real which they thought they killed... but now on top of it he was being molested by that very clone of himself and clone of his best friend. None of those ideas were appealing to him at all, in fact they made him completely and utterly sick - which was likely the very reason they were doing it to begin with and there was nothing either Link or Rhett could do about it.

Suddenly Link gasped again, feeling the familiar electric jolt again, this time radiating out from his stomach. He hadn't even been aware that the electric box had switched hands, now controlled by cLink. He was thankful that it wasn't on where any of the burns from the metal was, but part of him wished it was. Maybe if the little electrocutions were on a burn it would hurt too much and would stop his skin from crawling pleasantly. The little metal nubs pressed against all parts of Link's skin, sending zaps of varying intensities through his body from painless tingles to searing stabs of electric heat and every single one made his head spin. That was soon paired with the cold blade running down his back, cutting away the ropes that held his arms but they felt half numb from having been tied backwards for so long so he couldn't use them to push the others away if he tried. cLink pressed the little electric box to Link's thighs and over his bulge, zapping him in his most tender of areas on medium strength. Each time he felt the biting pain Link gasped, his body jolting and getting a little hotter. It didn't take long for him to notice that his pants were getting noticeably tight, which only made him shake his head at himself in disgust a little more, his eyes still closed as he felt tears burn at the edges.

cLink took a step back and Link thought to himself that just maybe they were done tormenting his body for a little while. He would have preferred to be in pain then suffer through this... but no, he should have known better. He wasn't going to get off that easily. He watched in horror as his double reached down and started to unhook the button on Link's jeans before slowly pulling down the zipper. Time stood still as Link heard each and every rivet unhook until the little metal tab finished it's path all the way down. Link's eyes were glued on cLink's in horror as the clone hooked his thumbs into the waistband, pushing the jean material down but at least blessedly leaving the underwear intact. It didn't really matter, though... his underwear was stretched taught by the clear reaction his body was having without his consent... the tended fabric was honestly just as embarrassing as had he been completely naked.

Tears stung at Link's eyes, making them burn as he tried desperately to squirm away. Fuck the consequences, he couldn't let this happen! He kicked his legs out, trying to push cLink back as cRhett still held his arms back. Link was pretty sure he was going to manage to get in a good kick but cLink stepped out of reach and cRhett leaned in to his ear, speaking in a very soft, smooth voice, low enough that only Link could hear. The tone was laced with a dangerous venom which would have been nerve wracking enough but hearing it in Rhett's voice made Link's blood run cold, "Stop fighting... if you keep it up, well... who knows what will happen to your friend."

Those simple words made Link freeze like a statue, eyes shooting over to Rhett as his breathing quickened and fear set into every nerve. He couldn't let Rhett get hurt any more then he already was. They were in this situation because of Link in the first place... he couldn't let it get even worse. So with all of the self control he could muster, he forced himself to stop kicking and squirming, becoming limp in the strong arms that held him as his whole body very visibly trembled. He wanted to fight back and struggle... even in pain it wasn't like him to just take this lying down. But if he fought they'd hurt Rhett - he couldn't let that happen even if it meant worse for himself. He needed to try to save Rhett from at least some of the suffering.

Only once they were sure Link wouldn't fight them any more did the clones continue. Specifically cLink continued, since he was the one leading this situation. He knelt down and ran his hands up the thin, toned legs then over the hard bulge, which caused another sobbing moan from the man above. cLink grinned a wide, toothy grin as he glanced up - he hadn't realized how much he would enjoy this but as he shifted around a little to get more comfortable, he noticed that his own pants were getting really quite tight. The feeling of domination and control was intoxicating him and he wanted more - he needed more. He needed to control this man.

Link squirmed a final few times but eventually gave up. On top of that, cRhett went from simply holding his arms back to fully restraining him, one arm wrapped around his waist and making sure he was planted in his spot as cLink had his way with him however he wanted. Link squeezed his eyes shut, tears slipping down his cheeks as he felt a hot tongue work it's way up his thighs and to his clothed penis, lightly sucking on the outside of the fabric. He shook his head, feeling shivers run down his spine and mix with his fearful trembling as he heard Rhett to the side, whimpering and pleading for this to stop... but it wasn't going to stop. They were both powerless and were forced to watch and endure.

Link's eyes suddenly shot open as he felt fingers hook into his underwear. He looked down and his eyes met with his double's - the clone's eyes hidden behind his glasses, shining with lust and sadism... they were a stark contrast to Link's, which were red from tears and filled with fear and disgust, his own glasses kicked somewhere in the corner of the room from when cRhett had slapped him ages ago. Link shook his head, mouthing the words to stop but was unable to form actual words... cLink didn't stop though. Instead the corners of the clones mouth turned up in a smile as he slowly slid the underwear down... down... and then finally off, leaving Link's dick free to the air as he stood completely naked, his member already mostly hard despite himself.

Thankfully Rhett had the courtesy to look away quickly, squeezing his eyes shut. He couldn't bare to watch this - he couldn't stand to see his best friend r-ra... He couldn't even let himself finish the thought. He shook it from his head as quickly as he could and tried to tell himself this wasn't happening... but it was. It was happening and he wasn't doing anything to stop it. He just sat there with soft sobs wracking his body as he was forced to listen to what he could only describe as hell.

Link's body suddenly stiffened, his breathing hitching in his throat as his eyes shot open wide. He felt a warm hand wrap around his shaft and squeeze and it fully hit him... this was really happening wasn't it? It really was truly happening. His body began to shake harder then it ever had in his life and he wished he could just die... at the same time, however, his body was on fire - a slick layer of sweat breaking out over his skin and stinging his burns. He involuntarily moaned as cLink teasingly slid his grip along Link's full length and Link could only shake his head ins disgust. Why... why... why was this happening? Just why? Why couldn't he die instead? Anything but this. Anything.

cLink was very happy that cRhett let him take the lead on this because more and more a new hunger filled his body, making him ravenous. He had planned on doing this merely to upset the originals but now... now it was so much more then that. He wanted this - he needed this. He needed to control his original - make him moan against his will - make him sob as he begged for it. The power was intoxicating and Link's tears and screams made cLink's head swim. He needed this and he would take it... he'd break the bastard's mind just as much as his body.

For the time being, cLink stared at the cock that was in front of him for a few moments, tilting his head out of curiosity as he regarded it. He never really saw himself from this angle before, obviously... though he never really gave himself much of a look either way. He never thought he was into guys but something about the dick in front of him made him hunger to wrap his lips around it... but did this count as gay, necessarily? He wasn't sure... after all this was himself, so was it just like masturbation and self admiration? Or did it still count as homosexual in this case? He wasn't even sure he liked it past the fact of the control and domination he had so he really wasn't sure. He'd figure it out later, right now he didn't care in the slightest. He was pulled from his thoughts as he saw Link jolt again, cRhett having taken the second shocking toy and poking it around on various points of Link's body, causing some more gasps, whines, whimpers and hidden moans to escape from the bruised man. That made cLink chuckle softly, "Look at you... getting so turned on by this. By the pain and being dominated. You're fucking filthy."

"N-no... I hate it. Please just stop." Link was shaking his head, words coming out as soft sobs. But despite what he said, his body betrayed his words. His body was clearly loving everything and apparently it also loved being spoken to like that because as the cruel words had poured from cLink's lips, a tingle had ran down Link's spine. Fuck, what was wrong with him?

All thoughts came to a complete stop in his mind as he felt a hot, wet tongue flick across his cock head. He gasped and moaned out a sharp "No" but both he and cLink knew that the word was simply to cover up the fact that he nearly said 'yes'. Another moan escaped Link's throat as cLink's lips wrapped around the head a little, sucking lightly and twirling his tongue around the tip before pulling back. Link hated himself for wanting more, but he didn't get it. Instead cLink stood up and Link looked at him with broken, defeated eyes. He knew there was no getting out of this and he might as well just accept his fate, but that didn't mean he had to like it - he'd protest at least a little bit, despite knowing it wouldn't matter. He felt cRhett leave from behind him for a moment but before he could react or pull back, cLink pulled him into another deep kiss, this time his jaw went lax, hardly having the power to fight it as his double pushed his tongue into his mouth. He could taste the slight saltiness of himself on cLink's lips and tongue and the idea nearly made him retch but he held himself back and forced himself to stay still, for Rhett's sake. cLink's hand trailed down to his cock again, gently tickling and teasing the length before lightly palming the balls a bit. Soon a sharp sound filled the air followed by an even sharper pain that flared across his back, making Link's body arch as a cry escaped his lips. cLink knotted his hand into Link's hair and pulled him into another deep kiss, more fiery then any one before and Link couldn't stop his mouth from responding, somewhat kissing back until he actively forced himself not to and forced his mind not to think about how good of a kisser he was. His body tensed again as another sharp pain sprang across his back and his mind finally managed to piece together what was causing the pain. cRhett was using some sort of switch or whip on him... it sting and he was positive that it was cutting into skin but god damn it felt so good. His flesh tingled in anticipation for the next bite of pain.

God damn what was wrong with him? He was being raped - purely and truly raped... and yet his body was responding even more to the fact. His disgusting, masochistic, depraved body was begging for it despite how much he truly wished he could just die - despite how much his stomach knotted and twisted - despite the constant stream of tears that flowed down his face non-stop... his body still wanted all of this. It wanted the extreme pleasure mixed with a deliciously tolerable amount of pain as opposed to some time ago where it felt nothing but unbelievable pain. But Link didn't want this... he would rather be beaten and tortured and ripped to shreds then endure this for any longer, but his body didn't care. The body that he used to take so much pride in was lowering him to nothing more then a filthy fucking whore, getting off on the most horrible of things. Maybe he did deserve this, as punishment for being so disgusting.

As the switch came down again, cLink gave Link a hard pump of his cock... Link couldn't help himself as a deep, guttural moan escaped his lips, followed by soft panting. Fuck.. he needed more... his body was so far gone there was no way he could recover from how hard he was. His mind was clouded in a haze of lust and self-hatred as he looked at his double with half-lidded eyes. cLink grinned at the unfocused blue irises... they begged for this to stop at the same time as begging for it to keep going - they begged for more and they begged to be let go. The man was so conflicted between the wants of his body and mind... cLink loved it.

A few more switches littered his body, biting at his back and legs before eventually they finally stopped and Link thought, or more like hoped, once again that maybe they'd give him at least a moment to collect himself but of course they didn't. Instead he immediately felt something prodding at his butt and he jerked away quickly before being pushed back in his spot. He felt a long, slim finger probe into his hole, causing his eyes to widen in fear and pain. He shook his head, incoherently trying to mumble out for them to stop before he felt the finger slide inside, all the way up to the knuckle. His head shot back in a cry of pain of the sudden foreign object in his body. It was only a single finger and it felt like he was being split in two.

Link tried to squirm and move away, his muscles constricting as he tried to get away from the pain, but it only made it worse as the finger began to move. He knew it was cRhett since cLink was in front of him, one of his hands painfully gripping his hip and the other slowly stroking Link's dick. The pain in his ass was such a large contrast to the pleasure in his groin that he couldn't think straight anymore. He couldn't feel the hate or guilt or disgust... all that filled his mind was the physical sensations that engulfed his body and he couldn't decide if he liked them or not.

A yowl of pain escaped Link's lips as he flung his head back again, a second finger finding it's way in after the first. Link dropped his head, shaking it as his eyes stayed squeezed shut while the fingers began to move in and out of him harder, scissoring the hole a little bit. Link didn't want this... he wasn't like this. Tears dripped down his cheeks, splashing onto the floor, but he could do nothing to save himself. He tried to at least relax his muscles to make it hurt less, begging his body to cooperate with at least that... it listened somewhat but soon the fingers left him, causing him to pant and shake a little on weak legs. Please... please be over... please...

As the pain slightly receded, he managed to open his eyes, weakly trying to focus on the room again. He was met with the sight of a chair being placed right in front of Rhett, which confused his muddled brain for a moment before the stark realization of what that meant hit him, nearly knocking him to the floor in horror. He managed to yell out a 'No!' right before he was shoved over to the chair, making him stumble before one of the clones caught him and bent him over the hard back of the furniture. He had to place his hands on the seat to steady himself, ending up practically face to face with Rhett. He spared a glance up at him and was met with a look that broke his heart... Rhett's normally bright green eyes so filled with life were filled with nothing more then sadness, pain and a broken spirit. That look in those eyes was worse then anything that was happening to him right now... He knew Rhett would take his place in a heartbeat but Link could never let his friend have to endure this, even if he was given a choice.

Rhett meanwhile had no thoughts in his mind, while at the same time his mind was spinning and screaming out. He felt like this was a dream - a terrible and horrible nightmare that he couldn't wake up from. He honestly missed the feeling of the knife searing into his skin compared to this... he'd take his entire body being skinned by that hot knife then another second of this. And he was so useless! Link was literally inches away from him and Rhett couldn't save him! He couldn't even comfort him in the time he clearly needed it the most! He was the most useless 'best friend' and 'brother' in the universe and he hated himself. Had he only been a little bit stronger Link wouldn't be going through this. Had he been a little more convincing maybe they'd be doing this to him instead of Link, which even that would be better. More tears slipped from his eyes, getting lost in his beard as he fought back another sob, which still escaped, barely audible. But Link heard it and it only broke his heart that much more.

The shared moment of mutual pain didn't last for long, however, as cLink walked over with a devilish grin plastered across his face, spinning a knife around in his hand. Both of the originals looked over to him in confusion, but they had no voices to speak - they knew they'd find out soon enough anyway, for better or for worse. Sure enough, without any warning the knife plunged into Rhett's shoulder, opposite of where he had already been sliced. Rhett forced the scream to stay buried in his throat, more for Link's sake then rebellion. His stomach twisted and his fists clenched as cLink turned and twisted the knife, doing quite a bit of damage before pulling the stained metal away, leaving blood trickling down his shoulder. Rhett panted in pain, his body shivering from the sudden assault, "Wh-wha-" cLink didn't let him finish his question as he reached down and collected a bit of the blood from the wound in his hand. He felt a slight wave of lightheadedness wash over his body and his legs go weak for a second, knowing he was about to faint. cRhett stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, the sudden comforting contact grounding cLink again and he collected himself, shaking his head and putting himself back in the moment as he walked around behind Link. There was a pause before Link felt something warm and wet spread onto his ass, probing the inside of the hole a little as well, and his already pale face went even more pale.

They were using Rhett's blood as lube... The idea nearly made Link vomit, causing him to dry heave a little but he managed to stop anything from coming up. The situation was bad enough... but Rhett's blood?! Why wouldn't they just use his own blood?! Or actual freaking lube?! Hell Link would have probably preferred if they went in dry... but Rhett's blood being smeared on and in his ass? There was something so incredibly wrong about that... he felt dirty - dirtier then he even had before and so utterly and completely sick.

All thoughts came to a complete halt in his mind as Link felt the hottest and most mind numbing pain rip through his entire body from his ass, causing the most pained, animalistic scream to rip from his throat as his body arched backwards. He felt like he was being torn apart... cLink hadn't given him any warning or teasing or fresh preparation before he pushed himself in, all the way to the base. It ripped Link apart, he honestly felt like his entire body was torn in half. His tears were renewed as cLink immediately began thrusting into him mercilessly, grunting as he took in all of the pleasure for himself, relishing Link's pain. He looked down to the original and let himself drink in the beautiful site of his skinny, bruised body bent over the chair, shaking and jolting at each hard thrust. His spine tingled at the screams and begging to stop, and he only answered them with thrusting harder, trying to slam himself into Link as hard and deep as was physically possible. He trailed a rough hand up Link's back and to his hair, grabbing a fistful and yanking it back, causing Link's body to arch backwards as cLink continued to thrust, Link's ass getting even tighter with his body bent backwards.

Rhett was in a state of complete and utter shock as he sat helplessly watching his friend a mere inches in front of him, screaming and crying in pain as he was raped, his entire body shaking from the force of the thrusts. He wanted to beg for this to stop, but no sounds could make their way past his throat. His body and mind felt so numb and lost... for a moment he honestly wondered if he had died at some point along the way and he was just in Hell right now.

Link could do nothing more then sob, desperately trying to pull away to no avail. He was trapped and the pain made it impossible for him to think. He didn't know how long it lasted... the pain spreading through his skin like a wild fire. He felt more slickness in his ass then when the clone had started, the thrusts seeming at least smoother now, but that didn't make him feel any better since he knew the reason was because he was being torn apart, his own blood mingling with Rhett's as he was raped mercilessly. His knuckles were white as they gripped the chair, trying to endure the pain long enough to survive this until eventually he started to feel the pain going numb. The painful thrusts soon began to get a little softer and slower and the pain numbed out even more, soon being replaced by pleasure. Link didn't want it to be replaced with pleasure though... he wanted it to hurt. He wanted his body to hate this... he shouldn't like this, he didn't want to feel good while being raped!

But it was too late... cLink found his prostate and with the pain freshly having receded, paired with cRhett's hand finding it's way to his cock, Link couldn't help the deep moan that escaped from his lips, followed by another soft sob with tears steadily flowing down his face. He was loosing control of his mind and body and soon all of his sobs were replaced by moans as he panted, his body involuntarily pushing back into cLink's thrusts. The pain that had radiated out through his entire body had now turned into pleasure every time that special part inside of him was hit, which seemed to be nearly every thrust now. cRhett's hand worked Link's dick in time with cLink's movements, making Link's skin crawl as the thin layer of sweat coating his body made it hard to grip the chair. Finally cLink let go of Link's hair, his body remaining arched in pleasure as the clone's nails ran down his back, leaving little red marks and electing another moan from the man. Link had to fight back the urge to beg for it again, just panting and moaning with his eyes closed for now. cLink leaned down and bit Link's shoulder semi-hard, forcing Link to break his resolve by accident, "A-again!" cLink could only smirk as he lowered his lips once more, biting hard enough to draw blood this time which caused a pleasured cry of pain to escape Link's lips. Link felt so fucking good right now and he hated it so much.

This went on for a little while longer before cLink pulled Link's body straight up, causing the man to groan a little as his ass tightened in the new position. His eyes were half lidded and red from the steady stream of tears but he watched in a slight daze as cRhett moved the chair to the side and looked down to Rhett. cLink's movements became slower, letting Link's mind catch up with the situation while still assaulting his body with painful pleasure.

cRhett tilted his head a little, eying the original bearded man for a second, "You know, Link... it seems rather unfair that you're getting all of the pleasure and Rhett isn't. I think we should remedy that, don't you?" Those words made Link's haze lift and his eyes widened, shifting a little but he was held back by cLink's strong arms, "No! Leave him out of this! You already have me, don't-" Too late... cRhett bent down and unzipped Rhett's pants, pulling out his flaccid dick and carefully stroking it a bit. He knew exactly how to make the man's body react appropriately so stroked him just right, quickly making the soft penis start turning semi-hard. Rhett squirmed, trying to somewhat fight back but it was only halfheartedly. He knew it was a lost cause and honestly, if Link could endure this then so could he. He didn't really care anymore... his heart was already ripped out of his chest, what more could they even do?

Apparently a lot more.

cLink shoved Link's top half down, forcing him to keep his ass in the air. Link had to quickly place his hands on Rhett's thighs to keep himself from falling head first into the man, but he did his best to keep his eyes averted from the semi-hard dick right under him. That's when he felt a hand on the back of his head and he glanced over, seeing cRhett's hand having had moved from Rhett's dick to the back of Link's head. A flash of terror coursed through Link's gut as he saw the dark grin on the clone's eyes as he began to put pressure on Link's head, pushing him down... down...

Link's eyes widened so much that cRhett thought they were about to pop out of the man's head and that only made him laugh harder as he gave one strong shove and pushed Link's face down to Rhett's dick. Link was fully crying by now, his body shaking with his gut wrenching sobs as his face felt on fire from where his friend's member was touching him. He shook his head, trying to keep his lips tightly closed as cRhett started to taunt him, "Open wide, Linkster." Meanwhile Rhett was frozen his place, feeling bile burn in his throat. He closed his eyes and shook his head hard, trying to pretend that it wasn't his best friend's face that was rubbing against his dick. What was worse was, like Link, his body was reacting without his consent to the touches. He cursed his male body for being so focused on touch... hell it didn't even feel good... his body felt raw and pained and yet his dick still slowly came to attention.

cRhett pried his fingers into Link's mouth, forcing his jaw wide open before navigating his mouth over to cRhett's dick, shoving his face down. Link gagged hard at the feeling of the semi-hard rob penetrating his throat, his face buried all the way down in Rhett's lap with eyes wide in horror and disgust. This was worse then the torture, this was worse then the rape, this was worse then anything. They were fucking brothers and here he was with his mouth around Rhett's dick! He never felt so wrong in his entire life. He felt so violated and broken and he was only loosely aware as cLink began to fuck him again, hard, while cRhett grabbed his hair and forced his face up and down. He could hear Rhett sob barely coherent 'Sorry's and 'No's out as Link felt the cock become harder inside of his mouth, feeling the tip scrape up and down inside of his throat. Rhett felt like he was no better then a rapist, never mind the fact that he had no choice in the matter. His body felt horrible and sick and raw but yet his body didn't seem to care as it violated Link in the worst of ways.

cLink's thrusts became steadily harder which in turn felt horribly better on Link's broken body. He began to moan again in between sobs on Rhett's dick, the vibrations in his throat only making Rhett's body react more. cLink grunted, his fingers dug deep into Link's hips as he gave one final hard slam and Link felt something hot pour deep inside of him, making him want nothing more then to rip his insides out and get rid of that awful feeling. It didn't matter, though... he had no time to react as cLink pulled out and the original could feel the warm liquid leak from his ass, but it wasn't over yet. cLink took over holding Link's head, still pushing him up and down as cRhett walked behind him and soon a fresh wave of thrusts began. All the while Link's mouth was forced up and down on Rhett, who was breathing hard and fast now, whimpering softly as he shook his head and tears streamed down his face, some them splashing onto Link's head as he 'worked.'

Drool poured from the corners of Link's mouth as his head began to get very light from not getting much oxygen since his head was first forced down onto his friend. Rhett's body tensed up and jerked a little and Link felt the salty slickness pour into his mouth and down his throat, some of it making it's way down into his stomach. The hand finally let go of his hair and Link pulled back, spitting and coughing and gagging. Drool and cum slid from his mouth and down his chin and neck, dripping to the floor and onto Rhett's lap as Rhett broke down into pathetic sobs of utter disgust and guilt. Link felt his stomach twist and finally it couldn't hold onto itself any longer. He turned his head and a thin stream of bile, cum and blood splashed to the floor, making his throat burn even more from when the large dick had assaulted it raw. He wasn't given reprieve, though, as he felt a hand on his dick again, twisting and squeezing as light bites of pain began to scatter around his body from scratches and bites. Once again his prostate started to get assaulted mercilessly, causing him to moan and cry out before it just became to much for his broken body. He reared back in a guttural moan as his abdomen tensed and he finally released in a powerful orgasm, his seed splashing on his stomach and the floor. The waves crashed over him again and again for what seemed like forever before they slowly faded away, leaving his head feeling hazy as he hung limply in cRhett's grasp. Finally the clone grunted and slammed one final, very painful time into Link's raw ass and emptied himself into him before letting go.

Link didn't even try to remain on his feet or even so much as catch himself as he fell, collapsing on the ground at Rhett's feet amidst the puddle of blood, tears, spit and cum. His body was bloody and bruised and burnt and his ass was raw, dripping of blood and cum. He looked and felt completely used and broken as Rhett sat above him, shivering and crying while mumbling incoherent apologies as his mind rebelled against everything that just happened, sending him into a loop of denial, self-hate and disgust.

The clones stuffed themselves back into their pants, looking over the two utterly broken men. Now that was more like it. Now they were getting their proper punishment.


	8. Chapter 8

**~All that we were is gone we have to hold on - When all our hope is gone we have to hold on~**

Days passed, though for the two at the end of the clones' wrath it felt more like years. At least once a day, every day, Link's body was used with Rhett only able to watch helplessly to the side. At times the blonde was even forced to 'participate' against his will, which to him was worse than any pain they could inflict on him. Link's body began reacting against his will more and more, being trained to get excited from the pain, which made the brunet want to tear his skin off more and more each day, disgusted with his own body.

Given no food and only enough water to survive, the originals were weak and incredibly malnourished and dehydrated. They couldn't even stand on their own two feet anymore, so the clones were perfectly happy to take off the restraints. It only served to humiliate the originals even more... no restraints and periods of time where they weren't even being monitored and they were to weak to even find a phone to call for help. Every method of 'punishment' that the clones could think of was tested out. From chemicals to fire, electricity to boiling water... all manners of sick experiments on human skin were done to the original Rhett and Link, but never anything that would kill them or even massively damage them if given a chance to heal. The aim was to hurt, not destroy... at least physically that is.

Despite all of this, the clones never felt true satisfaction from their revenge. They had thought and hoped that making the originals suffer even a fraction of how it felt when they were killed would make them feel better, but no... it didn't. No matter how brutal the punishment, it was never good enough. By the fifth day the originals weren't even reacting anymore. The tears had stopped, the screams had quieted, it was like they were just dolls. There wasn't a single patch of skin that wasn't broken or burnt on Link and though Rhett was mildly better, he seemed even more dazed out. The clones had used up all the vitality they could in the originals and now the week was coming to a close. It was very well, too, as the Mythical Entertainment break would be over soon and the crew would be coming back to the studio within a day or two. This damned studio and that accursed show was what caused all of this in the first place. So, with this in mind, the clones agreed it was time to wrap it up. There was no more satisfaction here, and this was definitely not the key to happiness.

cLink sneered down to the originals in utter disgust, their broken bodies were covered in all manner of disgusting fluids and honestly they barely even resembled humans anymore, at least to him. cRhett on the other hand had to admit he was pretty impressed in them. They were still alive even after everything he and cLink threw at them. Though they obviously had given up wanting to survive long ago, their dedication to each other was always admirable. cRhett remembered exactly when that need to survive kicked in, too... Around the third day, Rhett had tripped cLink who had been holding a knife and walking towards the blonde, quite clearly trying to get the clone to accidentally stab him fatally and finally end his suffering. Luckily cRhett had caught his friend and the resulting punishment to the original Link was the harshest thing that had happened to either of them all week. It left Rhett devastated and broken, but with the promise that if one of the originals did happen to die, be it on purpose or just succumbing to their injuries, the fate of their friend would be far worse then anything they could imagine. Needless to say, the threat to their friend was enough to keep them breathing, despite their desperate wish to just die. The strength to suffer for the sake of their best friend would always be admirable and one thing that cRhett would praise in the originals. Of course, he and his cloned best friend had the exact same bond. It was the only thing that kept them sane, albeit broken, through seemingly lifetimes of pain they themselves had undergone when they were killed and forced to be 'reborn.'

"So, now what?" cRhett looked to his cloned Link, who sort of had taken over the lead of this whole situation, which made sense since it was the original Link's mind who created them in the first place. Not only that, but cLink seemed to thrive on the domination and strength this gave him, pushing away some of the insecurities he'd been plagued with his whole life (well, the life that wasn't even his but he was forced to have the memories of.) No longer was cLink the meek and 'dumb' one. Now he held all of the cards, and cRhett was happy for him.

cLink looked down to the bodies across the room. They were unmoving but breathing and seemed to be conscious, "We need to finish this before anyone shows up." Neither clone had any intention of hurting anyone else. Not only that, but if the wrong person found this and realized they were imagination created clones, who knows what crap that in and of itself would bring. Along with the torture and rape? Yea, they definitely didn't want to be seen anywhere around here. They needed to finish this and disappear. Both clones wanted to make the originals feel all the pain they had felt but there just wasn't the time or means for that and there never would be. They suffered for what seemed to amount to lifetimes in their heads, so there was no way to make the originals feel that. Besides, cLink doubted they would ever feel true happiness from this. There was no more satisfaction to be gained... the first couple of days was the peak and at this point it was just a destructive cycle of pain which amounted to nothing. It was time to move on before they lost themselves even more then they already were. Maybe they could finally open one of those silly restaurants they had wanted to, so long ago. They could finally live out their dreams somewhere nice and quiet and safe and put everything behind them. Yea... that was a nice idea.

cRhett nodded in understanding. They already had made plans on what they'd do with this place to end all of this. The damned originals loved their stupid show so much that they were willing to kill over it, so what better way to end their revenge but to make this studio go up in smoke, along with the originals themselves.

The clones left the room with the originals still on the floor, unrestrained but barely breathing. Rhett stared at his best friend, his childhood best friend and essentially his little brother. For the first time in days, tears began to sting at his eyes as he took in the sight. Link was so broken... Rhett himself was so broken, and for what? He didn't even know anymore. How did Link getting his phone stolen somehow lead to all of this? Just how? It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. None of this was fair.

Weakly the blonde moved his arm, despite it feeling like every bone was broken, and weakly wrapped his fingers around Link's hand. Dull blue, almost gray eyes looked back at him. The sparkling life and happiness that usually colored them was gone. The signature smile the could brighten a room was gone, leaving just a husk of the man behind. They both knew this was the end, but maybe that was a good thing. How could they possibly continue after this? They were physically broken and mentally destroyed. There was no way they'd recover from this hell.

Soon the sharp stench of gasoline filled up the room and both pairs of original eyes looked to the door of the office. They watched helplessly as the clones walked into the room, pouring containers of gasoline in their wake, which ended in a circle around the two originals, but not coating them. The clones wanted one last opportunity for the originals to suffer during this, and wanted them to see their life burn and crumble around them. It was very unlikely they would get out alive from this, as it was the middle of the night so anyone noticing the fire would take a little longer than normal. But even if by some miracle they did survive, the clones knew that they surely would have lasting scars from this ordeal. They were both mentally broken beyond belief so surviving the fire would only be the tip of the iceberg. They'd continue to suffer long after the clones disappeared.

Finally the last of the gas was emptied and every inch of the studio was drenched. The clones gave one last look down to the originals in hate and disgust, "You only did this to yourselves, remember that." cLink gave one last hard kick to Rhett's side, and cRhett to Link's stomach before they left the room.

With a box of matches in hand, it was time to be quick. Of course the clones couldn't actually die as long as the originals were alive, but they did not relish the idea of being burnt up and who knows when the originals would succumb to their injuries or the flames. So they split up and began to toss matches in various parts of the studio, making sure each room went up in flames before the office that they left Rhett and Link in. The fire could spread there on its own, following the trail of gasoline. Bit by bit, every part of the studio began to burn. Chia Lincoln, iconic pictures, little mementos of their history together and as internetainers, burning away. The fire made quick work of the building but the clones managed to just barely get away in time.

By the time sirens could be heard, the clones were well on their way out of town. The deed was done, their revenge served, and now it was time to try and move on. To make the best of their broken life. Their original potential, happiness and innocence shattered because of the selfishness of two men, one of which who had created them in the first place. But now it was time to move on, and try to find at least some happiness again.

Meanwhile, the fire quickly made its way into the office. More history went up in smoke, the iconic wall of albums, the happy plants from the ceiling, their dogs' toys, and finally their prized signed Lionel Richie album, everything crumbling around them.

Rhett and Link lay in the middle, their life and memories disappearing around them. Through it all, they didn't look away from each other even as the heated flames became suffocating, burning their lungs and eyes as it ate all of the oxygen from the room. Finally, tears began to pour from their eyes, quickly evaporating in the heat. Though they couldn't speak, the silent conversation was loud and clear, _'I love you, Buddy Roll.' 'I love you too, Bo.'_

Finally, just as the flames began to lick their skin, Link could hear the sound of feet shuffling and heavily gloved hands touching him. Then, the world went black.

The warm rays of sun that filtered through the window was nice, but it was so bright... too bright. Luckily, the nurse came in at just the right time to check on vitals and with a quick flick of the eyes, she got the hint to close the blinds a bit.

Link lay in a hospital gown, bandages over nearly every inch of his body and IVs hooked up to his arm. It hurt to breath still, and the heavy dose of pain killers was the only reason he could function at all right now, but somehow the doctor said he that was going to pull through. Rhett was in the bed next to him, easily within arms reach if he had been able to really use his arms. Rhett was just silently staring at the tv, not really watching it but just staring. They both had taken everything very hard, but as long as Link remained mute, Rhett had as well, withdrawing into himself. He felt like he was a failure of a best friend for everything that had happened, blaming himself for their entire ordeal, and especially Link's suffering. Neither of them should be alive right now and it still wasn't clear if it was a good thing or not that they were. Every time they closed their eyes, the clones stared back at them. Every time the door opened, a flash of terror ripped through their hearts, expecting to see those monsters again. Every seed of pain that the clones had planted began to slowly grow. Link who's body betrayed them, Rhett who failed at protecting his friend, and the thought that they were possibly capable of doing this to each other constantly ate away at their minds.

But, despite it all... they were alive. They were alive and they were still together. Somehow they were thrust into hell and made it to the other side. Sure the clones were still out there and they definitely had a very long way to go to heal, both mentally and physically...

But they were alive...

They were alive, their bodies were healing, and they made it through with each other, for each other.

And as Link sat, staring at his quiet friend, he came to the conclusion that know what? They could make it through this too. They could heal. Life would go on. They could rebuild. They lost so much, not just the studio and all of the memories it held but pieces of themselves, but they still had each other.

As long as they had each other, they could do anything... they would make it.

"Rhett..." Link's voice was barely a croak, his throat still slightly raw and scarred from the week from hell. Not to mention he hadn't spoken a word since the third day in their hell. This was the first time he said a single actual word in weeks.

The sound of Link's voice startled Rhett out of his numb daze. He looked over to Link in surprise, thinking that he was probably just hearing things, but the look in Link's eyes told him otherwise... eyes that held light once more, "Link...?" His voice was no better than Link's, but it didn't matter because in that moment, despite the hell they went though, despite the uphill battle that healing would be... Link smiled. And after a moment, Rhett smiled too. 

**~All that we were is gone but we can hold on~**


End file.
